Creation of the syllabary Sequoyah

sequoyah s syllabary in order arranged characters.

around 1809, sequoyah began creating system of writing cherokee language. @ first sought create character each word in language. spent year on effort, leaving fields unplanted, friends , neighbors thought had lost mind. wife said have burned initial work, believing witchcraft. realized approach impractical because require many pictures remembered. tried making symbol every idea, caused many problems practical.

sequoyah decided develop symbol each syllable in language. after approximately month, had system of 86 characters, of latin letters obtained spelling book. in present form, many of syllabary characters resemble roman, cyrillic or greek letters or arabic numerals, says janine scancarelli, scholar of cherokee writing, there no apparent relationship between sounds in other languages , in cherokee.