File:Cherokee_sample.svg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Cherokee syllabary
Sign in to saveAlso known as Cherokee script, Cherokee alphabet, Cher
writing system invented by Sequoyah for the Cherokee language
Key facts
- Script type
- Syllabary
- Period
- 1820s – present
- Direction
- Left-to-right
- Languages
- Cherokee language
- Iso 15924
- Cher (445) , Cherokee
- Unicode alias
- Cherokee
- Unicode range
- U+13A0–U+13FF Cherokee U+AB70–U+ABBF Cherokee Supplement
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Based on
- Latin script
- Creator
- Sequoyah
- Image
- Cherokee stop sign.png
Show 6 more facts
- Unicode range
- U+AB70-ABBF
- Commons category
- Cherokee script
- discoverer or inventor
- Sequoyah
- inception
- 1821-00-00
- topic's main category
- Category:Cherokee script
- name
- Cherokee
via Wikidata · CC0
~22 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Cherokee syllabary (Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩ ᏗᎪᏪᎶᏙᏗ, romanized: Tsalagi Digohwelodohdi) 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. 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) characters provide a suitable method for writing Cherokee. The letters resemble characters from other scripts, such as Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and Glagolitic, but are not used to represent the same sounds.
History
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Cherokee syllabary” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.