One of the most difficult aspects of Tsalagi to learn is the pronominal or pronoun prefix. There are several sets of prefixes that are used to create specific meaning on verbs. Some of these pronoun prefixes are used on nouns, adjectives and adverbs. To complicated matters, some of the pronominal forms have one specific meaning when used on a type of verb, but will mean something different when applied on a different type of verb. My goal through the course of the next weeks is to break everything down as much as possible. I hope to teach you to understand what the sets are; what types of verbs the sets are applied to; which sets cannot be applied on a specific verb; and what the resulted means are.
To do this I’m going to start with a little definition review. It has been awhile since some of us have attended school so a review to understand some terminology would be useful.
Pronominal — linguistic term meaning pronoun. Pronominal and pronoun are interchangeable and will be used in this manner throughout these lessons. A prefix that is used to indicate a person and a number distinction. All verbs must have them, but some non-verb stems use them. There are six sets that can be classified as Set A, Set B, Set A animate object, combined local, combined nonsingular subject and object focus.
Typical break down of a word / simplest break down —
pronoun prefix — who is doing the action (person) & sometimes the number of people involved (number)
Stem / Verb Stem — what action is being performed
Tense Marker / Suffix – When they are doing it.
Transitive — verb with two participants, a subject and object. This verb refers to two or more.
Intransitive — verb with only one participant, a subject.
Grammatical persons (person described in the pronoun prefix) —
First person – speaker
Second person – person / people being spoken to
Third person – person / people / thing / things being spoken about.
Subject — participant more actively involved in the event described / action performed by the verb.
Object — participant affected by the event described / action performed by the verb.
Pronominal prefix number distinction — there are four
Singular – one person involved in the action
Nonsingular – more than one person involved in the action, but not necessarily known
Dual – exactly two people involved in the action (this distinction only holds for first and second person)
Plural – three or more people involved in the action
Exclusive — prefix used when the person being addressed is specifically excluded from the action.
Inclusive — prefix used when the person being addressed is involved in the action.
The English word ‘we’ have four equivalents in Tsalagi:
We, two, but not you
you and I
We all
we all, but not you
Finally, you can say Cherokee has always been gender neutral. The third person pronoun prefixes do not have a gender distinction. We don’t have a specific pronoun to mean he, she, or it. That gender specification is known by the conversation at hand or the knowledge of the material being discussed. The third person singular pronoun prefix can mean he, she or it. The third person nonsingular pronominal prefix means they.
Bridges Fam Books 
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