Assessing the international impact of Sequoyah and his Cherokee syllabary
Presented by Dr. Pete Unseth, Dallas International and SIL
Thursday, January 29, 12:20-1:15, “Brown Bag Lunch” Mahler 7, All are welcome
Many are aware that Sequoyah invented a syllabary for his Cherokee language. But too few are aware that his idea was spread to Canada, where a syllabary spread from coast-to-coast and from Baffin Island down into the USA (and Mexico!). Even fewer are aware that a Cherokee emigrated to Liberia and influenced the creation of the Vai syllabary, which then influenced the creation of a dozen other scripts. And even fewer still are aware that a description of the Canadian syllabary inspired a missionary in China to create a syllable based script for A-Miao, which was then adapted to additional languages. All this is documented, though obscure.
So, how many languages have been written with scripts influenced by Sequoyah’s? More than anybody thought.
