Editing Cherokee language (section)

== History ==
[[File:Cherokee Heritage Center - New Hope Church - Bible cover in Cherokee script (2015-05-27 14.09.44 by Wesley Fryer).jpg|thumb|Bible cover in Cherokee script]]
{{main|History of the Cherokee language}}
{{see also|Cherokee history}}

===Literacy===
{{see also|Cherokee syllabary|Sequoyah}}
[[File:Adams Corner - Kirche 7.jpg|thumb|left|Translation of [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] into the Cherokee language, 1856]]

Before the development of the [[Cherokee syllabary]] in the 1820s, Cherokee was an oral language only. The Cherokee syllabary is a set of written symbols invented by [[Sequoyah]] in the late 1810s and early 1820s to write the Cherokee language. His creation of the syllabary is particularly noteworthy in that he could not previously read any script. Sequoyah had some contact with English literacy and the Roman alphabet through his proximity to [[Fort Loudoun (Tennessee)|Fort Loudoun]], where he engaged in trade with Europeans. He was exposed to English literacy through his white father. His limited understanding of the [[Latin alphabet]], including the ability to recognize the letters of his name, may have aided him in the creation of the Cherokee syllabary.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cushman|first=Ellen|year=2011|title="We're Taking the Genius of Sequoyah into This Century": The Cherokee Syllabary, Peoplehood, and Perseverance|jstor=10.5749/wicazosareview.26.1.0067|journal=Wíčazo Ša Review|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|volume=26|issue=1|pages=72–75|doi=10.5749/wicazosareview.26.1.0067}}</ref> When developing the written language, Sequoyah first experimented with [[logogram]]s, but his system later developed into a syllabary. In his system, each symbol represents a [[syllable]] rather than a single [[phoneme]]; the 85 (originally 86){{sfn|Sturtevant|Fogelson|2004|p=337}} characters in the Cherokee syllabary provide a suitable method to write Cherokee. Some typeface syllables do resemble the Latin, [[Greek alphabet|Greek]], and even the [[Cyrillic script]]s' letters, but the sounds are completely different (for example, the sound {{IPA|/a/}} is written with a letter that resembles Latin D).

Around 1809, Sequoyah began work to create a system of writing for the Cherokee language.<ref name="nyt">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/science/23cherokee.html?ref=science |title=Carvings From Cherokee Script's Dawn |work=The New York Times |date=June 22, 2009 |access-date=June 23, 2009 |author=Wilford, John Noble}}</ref> At first he sought to create a character for each word in the language. He spent a year on this effort, leaving his fields unplanted, so that his friends and neighbors thought he had lost his mind.<ref name="gc">{{cite news|author=G. C.|date=August 13, 1820|title=Invention of the Cherokee Alphabet|work=Cherokee Phoenix|volume=1|number=24}}</ref><ref name="boudinot">{{cite journal|first=Elias|last=Boudinot|title=Invention of a New Alphabet|date=April 1, 1832|journal=American Annals of Education}}</ref> His wife is said to have burned his initial work, believing it to be [[witchcraft]].<ref name="nyt" /> He finally realized that this approach was impractical because it would require too many pictures to be remembered. He then tried making a symbol for every idea, but this also caused too many problems to be practical.<ref name="Davis">{{cite journal |last=Davis |first=John B. |journal=Chronicles of Oklahoma |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/chronicles/v008/v008p149.html |title=The Life and Work of Sequoyah |volume=8 |number=2 |date=June 1930 |access-date=April 4, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171028175529/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/chronicles/v008/v008p149.html |archive-date=2017-10-28 }}</ref>

Sequoyah did not succeed until he gave up trying to represent entire words and developed a written symbol for each syllable in the language. After approximately a month, he had a system of 86 [[Grapheme|characters]].<ref name="gc" /> "In their present form [of typeface syllabary, not the original handwritten syllabary], many of the syllabary characters resemble Roman, Cyrillic, or Greek letters, or [[Arabic numerals]]," says Janine Scancarelli, a scholar of Cherokee writing, "but there is no apparent relationship between their sounds in other languages and in Cherokee."<ref name="nyt" />

Unable to find adults willing to learn the syllabary, he taught it to his daughter, Ayokeh (also spelled Ayoka).<ref name="nyt" /> Langguth says she was only six years old at the time.<ref name="Langguth">Langguth, p. 71</ref> He traveled to the Indian Reserves in the [[Arkansas Territory]] where some Cherokees had settled. When he tried to convince the local leaders of the syllabary's usefulness, they doubted him, believing that the symbols were merely ''ad hoc'' reminders. Sequoyah asked each to say a word, which he wrote down, and then called his daughter in to read the words back. This demonstration convinced the leaders to let him teach the syllabary to a few more people. This took several months, during which it was rumored that he might be using the students for sorcery. After completing the lessons, Sequoyah wrote a dictated letter to each student, and read a dictated response. This test convinced the western Cherokees that he had created a practical writing system.<ref name="boudinot" />

When Sequoyah returned east, he brought a sealed envelope containing a written speech from one of the Arkansas Cherokee leaders. By reading this speech, he convinced the eastern Cherokees also to learn the system, after which it spread rapidly.<ref name="gc" /><ref name="boudinot" /> In 1825 the [[Cherokee Nation]] officially adopted the writing system. From 1828 to 1834, American missionaries assisted the Cherokees in using Sequoyah's original syllabary to develop [[typeface]] syllabary characters and print the ''[[Cherokee Phoenix]]'', the first newspaper of the Cherokee Nation, with text in both Cherokee and English.<ref name="Sequoyah">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-618&sug=y |entry=Sequoyah |encyclopedia=New Georgia Encyclopedia |access-date=January 3, 2009}}</ref>

In 1826, the Cherokee National Council commissioned George Lowrey and David Brown to translate and print eight copies of the laws of the Cherokee Nation in the new Cherokee language typeface using Sequoyah's system, but not his original self-created handwritten syllable glyphs.<ref name="Davis" />

Once [[Albert Gallatin]] saw a copy of Sequoyah's syllabary, he found the syllabary superior to the English alphabet. Even though a Cherokee student must learn 86 syllables instead of 26 letters, they can read immediately. Students could accomplish in a few weeks what students of English writing could learn in two years.<ref name="Langguth" />

In 1824, the General Council of the Eastern Cherokees awarded Sequoyah a large silver medal in honor of the syllabary. According to Davis, one side of the medal bore his image surrounded by the inscription in English, "Presented to George Gist by the General Council of the Cherokee for his ingenuity in the invention of the Cherokee Alphabet." The reverse side showed two long-stemmed pipes and the same inscription written in Cherokee. Supposedly, Sequoyah wore the medal throughout the rest of his life, and it was buried with him.<ref name="Davis" />

By 1825, the Bible and numerous religious hymns and pamphlets, educational materials, legal documents, and books were translated into the Cherokee language. Thousands of Cherokees became literate and the literacy rate for Cherokees in the original syllabary, as well as the typefaced syllabary, was higher in the Cherokee Nation than that of literacy of whites in the [[English alphabet]] in the United States.

Though use of the Cherokee syllabary declined after many of the Cherokees were forcibly removed to [[Indian Territory]], present-day Oklahoma, it has survived in private correspondence, renderings of the Bible, and descriptions of Indian medicine<ref name="britannica">{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/109503/Cherokee-language|title=Cherokee language|website=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=May 22, 2014}}</ref> and now can be found in books and on the internet among other places.

In February 2022, [[Motorola Mobility]] introduced a Cherokee language interface for its latest [[smartphone]]. Eastern Band Principal Chief [[Richard Sneed]], who along with other Cherokee leaders worked with Motorola on the development, considered this an effort to preserve the language. Features included not only symbols but also the culture.<ref>{{cite news |last=O'Brien |first=Matt |date=February 28, 2022 |title=Cherokee on a smartphone: Part of a drive to save a language |work=[[Hickory Daily Record]] |url=https://hickoryrecord.com/lifestyles/technology/how-tech-could-help-out-endangered-languages-like-cherokee/article_fe58a5b5-9222-5558-a204-af4a7c4eae0f.html |access-date=March 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220309235720/https://hickoryrecord.com/lifestyles/technology/how-tech-could-help-out-endangered-languages-like-cherokee/article_fe58a5b5-9222-5558-a204-af4a7c4eae0f.html |archive-date=2022-03-09 |via=[[Associated Press]]}}</ref>