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Sequoyah, a Cherokee silversmith who could not read or write any language, spent about twelve years creating a set of symbols for the syllables of Cherokee. Within a few years of its completion in 1821, much of the Cherokee Nation could read and write.

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According to accounts of his life, he was mocked for years; some neighbours thought he was practising witchcraft, and one story says his early work was burned. He first tried a separate symbol for every word, then realised the language could be broken into syllables and settled on about 85 characters, a syllabary rather than an alphabet. To prove it worked, he had his young daughter read aloud a message she could not have known in advance. It spread remarkably fast: by 1828 the Cherokee were printing a bilingual newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix. He is one of very few people known to have created a complete writing system without first being able to read one.

Türkçe oku
Sequoyah, hiçbir dilde okuma yazma bilmeyen bir Çeroki gümüş ustasıydı. Yaklaşık on iki yılını Çeroki dilinin heceleri için bir işaret takımı yaratmaya verdi; yazı 1821'de tamamlandıktan birkaç yıl sonra Çerokilerin büyük bölümü okuyup yazabiliyordu.

Anlatılanlara göre yıllarca alay konusu oldu; bazı komşuları büyü yaptığını düşündü, bir hikâyeye göre de ilk çalışmaları yakıldı. Önce her sözcük için ayrı bir işaret denedi, sonra dilin hecelere ayrılabileceğini fark etti ve 85 kadar işarette karar kıldı; ortaya çıkan şey alfabe değil, bir hece yazısıydı. İşe yaradığını kanıtlamak için küçük kızına, önceden bilmesinin mümkün olmadığı bir mesajı yüksek sesle okuttu. Yazı şaşırtıcı bir hızla yayıldı: 1828'de Çerokiler iki dilli bir gazete olan Cherokee Phoenix'i basıyordu. Sequoyah, kendisi okuma yazma bilmeden eksiksiz bir yazı sistemi yaratan, tarihte bilinen çok az kişiden biridir.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Sequoyah
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