[Aztlan] cherokee & contacts

[Lennert van Oorschot]

Hi!

Since "contacts between the culture areas" is my subject of interest... :) But first a note on the Cherokee syllabary. The book mentioned, with in it the oiginal "characters" (pp. 288-290) is called "Beginning Cherokee" by Ruth Bradley Holmes & Betty Sharp Smith, Oklahoma Press, 1976

I recently bought in a Boston bookstore. After "google-ing" on "original Cherokee syllabary", I found this online: http://intertribal.net/NAT/Cherokee/WebPgCC1/Original.htm 

As you can see, the original ones are indeed very different from the ones in use today. For example, the Cherokee "letter" D (the "a-sound"), which clearly comes from our Latin letter D, looked more like fs but also  less like our letters f & s than Cherokee D lookes like Latin D.

I also should note however that the book gives full credit to Sequoyah for inventing the script.

all the best,

Lennert van Oorschot
MA Languages & Cultures of Indigenous America
Amsterdam, Netherlands