Cherokee syllabary

Cherokee
Tsalagi ("Cherokee") written in the Cherokee syllabary
Script type
Time period
1820s[1] – present[2]
DirectionLeft-to-right Edit this on Wikidata
LanguagesCherokee language
ISO 15924
ISO 15924Cher (445), ​Cherokee
Unicode
Unicode alias
Cherokee
 This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
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Part of a series on the
Cherokee language
Sequoya with a tablet displaying the Cherokee writing system, which he invented.
History
Grammar

The Cherokee syllabary is a syllabary invented by Sequoyah in the late 1810s and early 1820s to write the Cherokee language. His creation of the syllabary is particularly noteworthy as he was illiterate until its creation.[3] He first experimented with logograms, but his system later developed into the syllabary. In his system, each symbol represents a syllable rather than a single phoneme; the 85 (originally 86)[1] characters provide a suitable method for writing Cherokee. The letters resemble characters from other scripts, such as Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and Glagolitic, however, these are not used to represent the same sounds.

  1. ^ a b Sturtevant & Fogelson 2004, p. 337.
  2. ^ "Cherokee language". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved May 22, 2014.
  3. ^ Diamond, Jared (1999). Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: Norton. p. 228. ISBN 0393317552.