Editing Cherokee language (section)

=== Dialects ===
[[File:WIKITONGUES- Jerry speaking English and Cherokee.webm|thumb|Video of [[Jeremiah Wolfe|Jerry Wolfe]] (1924–2018), speaking in English and the Kituwah dialect of Cherokee in 2013]]
At the time of European contact, there were three major dialects of Cherokee: Lower, Middle, and Overhill. The Lower dialect, formerly spoken on the South Carolina-Georgia border, has been extinct since about 1900.{{sfn|Scancarelli|2005}} Of the remaining two dialects, the Middle dialect (Kituwah) is spoken by the [[Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians|Eastern Band]] on the [[Qualla Boundary]], and retains ~200 speakers.<ref name="Ethnologue18" /> The Overhill, or Western, dialect is spoken in eastern Oklahoma and by the Snowbird Community in North Carolina by ~1,300 people.<ref name="Ethnologue18" />{{sfn|Scancarelli|2005|p=351}} The Western dialect is most widely used and is considered the main dialect of the language.<ref name="CARLA" /><ref name="about">{{cite web |url=http://aboutworldlanguages.com/cherokee |title=Cherokee |last=Thompson |first=Irene |date=August 6, 2013 |website=aboutworldlanguages.com |access-date=May 22, 2014 }}</ref> Both dialects have had English influence, with the Overhill, or Western dialect showing some Spanish influence as well.<ref name="about" />

The now extinct Lower dialect spoken by the inhabitants of the Lower Towns in the vicinity of the South Carolina–Georgia border had ''r'' as the liquid consonant in its inventory, while both the contemporary Kituhwa dialect spoken in North Carolina and the Overhill dialect contain ''l''.