I’ve been reading Thomas King’s novel Green Grass, Running Water recently, and enjoying it immensely. I’ve been curious about one thing, though: the titles of the four parts of the book are written in Cherokee. I recognized the syllabary, and with the help of Omniglot’s description of the writing system managed to transcribe the titles into something I can easily post on a message board:
But I don’t know Cherokee, and so I’m still in the dark about what these names mean. Do we have any Cherokee-speakers on the board who can help me out?
I received a response from the Elder I spoke of and I have been told the same as pinkfreud says above. I was also told that the “consonant blends” were variations on what is familiar to the Elder. That indicates that it is the Western dialect of Oklahoma and Texas, as opposed to that still used in the East.
Collectively, they are know generically as the “Four Directions”. Seems obvious at first but it doesn’t merely refer to compass points. It refers to four realms of existence, at the intersection of which you stand. I hope this helps a little. It’s hard to know what the author was shooting for without reading the book itself.