Cherokee Syllabary
OriginUSA
Earliest1821
TypeSyllabary
About Cherokee Syllabary
Invented by Sequoyah, a Cherokee silversmith who could not read any language. Has 85 characters, each representing a syllable. Sequoyah spent 12 years developing it. The Cherokee Nation achieved 90 percent literacy within a few years of its adoption. Some characters resemble Latin letters but have completely different sounds.
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