Cherokee syllabary
Silabario cheroqui
- Date
- c. 1809-1821 · confidence medium
- Place
- Willstown (present-day Alabama), United States
- Credited to
- Sequoyah
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
Sequoyah, who could neither read nor write English, spent over a decade of attempts before devising his own system for his language: he first tried one sign per word, an unworkable approach, and ended up creating 85 symbols, one per Cherokee syllable. Within a few years most of the Cherokee people learned to read and write with it, a unique case of rapid, mass literacy from a script invented by a single person.
What it led to
- Cherokee-language press and newspaper (Cherokee Phoenix, 1828)
- Written preservation of Cherokee language and sovereignty
Made possible
- Cherokee Phoenix newspaper