Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/128

 98 A SYNOPSIS OF THE INDIAN TRIBES. [iNTROD. is a similarity in the general termination of syllables, in the pronunciation and accent, which has struck some of the native Cherokees. We have not a sufficient knowledge of the gram- mar, and generally of the language of the Five Nations, or of the Wyandots, to decide that question. But a particular char- acter of the Cherokee has been disclosed by Guess's syllabic alphabet. Sequoyah, or Guess, as he is commonly called, is a native Cherokee, unacquainted with the English language. He saw books in the missionary schools, and was informed that the characters represented the words of the spoken language. Not understanding how this was done, he undertook to make characters of his own for the Cherokee, and at first attempted to have a distinct one for each word. He soon saw that the number would be such as to render that plan impracticable ; and discovering that, although the Cherokee is eminently poly- syllabic, the same syllables variously combined perpetually recurred in different words, he concluded to have a character for each syllable. This he did by listening, with a view to his object, to every discourse held in his hearing, and noting in his own way every new syllable. In a short time he produced his syllabic alphabet consisting of only eighty-five characters, through which he was enabled to teach within three weeks every Cherokee, old or young, who desired it, how to write his own language. That alphabet has superseded ours. Several books and a newspaper called the " Phoenix," edited by Mr. Boudinot, have been published with those characters ; and the Cherokees universally use them when writing in their own tongue. When the first imperfect copy of that alphabet was received at the War Department, it appeared incredible that a language, known to be copious, should have but eighty-five sylla- bles. The examination of a Cherokee spelling-book, published in our characters by the Missionaries, explained what seemed to be a mystery. It was found that every Cherokee syllable ended in a vocal or nasal sound, and that there were no other double con- sonants but tl or dl, and ts, and combinations of s with four or five different consonants. The language has twelve consonants including h, viz. g or Tc, h, I, m, n, qu, d or t, dl or tl, ts, w, y, s ; five vowels, viz. a, e, i, o, u ; and a nasal ung. It is obvious, that, multiplying the number of consonants (including the tl), by the six vowels (including the nasal), and adding to the product the said six vowels, each of