Book Title: Alphabet Key To History Of Mankind
Author(s): David Diringer
Publisher: Hutchinsons Scientific and Technical Publications
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SYLLABIC SYSTEMS OF WRITING
177 However, the Cherokee script is one of the best examples of the borrowing of writing without retaining the original phonetic values of the symbols concerned.
Morice's and Eubanks' Cherokee-Scripts
J. Mooney mentions two new scripts which were created about 1890; but the attempts to introduce them for the Cherokee tongue failed.
(1) Father Morice, attached to a mission station at Stuart's Lake, British Columbia, elaborated a semi-alphabet on the plan of the Dené (or Tinné) and Cree syllabaries. "In this system all related sounds are represented by the same character in different positions or with the addition of a dot or stroke." For instance, V expressed the sound hu; an inverted 1, was hâ; with the apex to the left,<, ha; to the right, >, hú" As Mooney pointed out, the plan was very simple, and the signs easily distinguishable, "but unfortunately not adapted to word combination in manuscript." (see also p. 18.ff.)
(2) The other system was much more ingenious; it was invented by William Eubanks, a Cherokee half breed, of Tahlequah, Indian Territory; and was a kind of shorthand, well adapted to rapid manuscript writing. "By means of dots variously placed, fifteen basal characters, each made with a single stroke, either straight or curved, represent correctly every sound in the language" (Mooney),
BIBLIOGRAPHY
"MISSIONARY HERALD," 1828, pp. 335-331.
J. Tracy. A History of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Worcester, 1840. G E. Foster, Se-quo-yah, Philadelphia, 1885,
C. C. Royce, The Cherokee Nation of Indians, Washington, 1887.
J. C. Pilling, Guess, "BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE IROQUOIAN LANGUAGES" (Bureau of American Ethnology), Washington, 1888.
J. Mooney, The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees, "SEVENTH ANNUAL REP, OF THE BUR. OF ETHNOL..." Washington, 1891; Improved Cherokee Alphabets, "AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST," 1892; Myths of the Cherokees, "OTH REPORT OF BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY," Washington, 1900; Cherokee, "HANDBOOK OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS," Part 1, Washington, 1907.
T. V. Parker, Cherokee Indians, New York, 1909.
C.F. Lummis, Sequoya, "HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN INDIANS," Part 2, Washington, 1910.
A. Bass, Cherokee Messenger, Oklahoma, 1936.
J. Mooney and F. M. Olbrechts, The Strimmer Manuscript, etc. Cherokee Sacred Formulas, etc., "SMITHS. INST. Bur. OP ANER. Etusot. BULL," Washington, 1932.
G. Foreman, Sequoyah, Oklahoma, 1998. A. L. Kræber, Stimulus Diffusion, "AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST," 1940.
W. H. Gilbert, Jr., The Eastern Cherokees, "ANTHROPOLOGICAL PAPERS." No. 23, 'BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY," Washington, 1943.
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