NATAMST 90 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Algonquian Languages, Cherokee Syllabary, Leanne Hinton

• School: Berkeley
• Department: Native American Studies
• Course: NATAMST 90
• Professor: Diane Pearson

Document Summary

Cherokee syllabary, reputedly invented by george guess, a. k. a chief sequoyah, Sequoyah"s descendants claim he way last surviving member of tribe"s scribe clan & cherokee syllabary was invented by persons unknown at a much later date. By 1820, thousands of cherokees had learned the syllabary, & by 1830, 90% were literate in their own language. Books, religious texts, almanacs & newspapers all publishes using the syllabary; widely used for over 100 years. Today, syllabary is still in use; efforts being made to revive both the cherokee language & the cherokee syllabary. James evan, wesleyan missionary at norway house in hudson"s bay, invented a syllabary for ojibwe language ca. Had tried to produce a latin-based orthography for ojibwe; eventually gave up & came up with a syllabary, based partly on shorthand. Evans" syllabary consisted of 9 symbols, each of which could be written in 4 different orientations to indicate different vowels.