Sequoyah

Sequoyah ( Ꮝ Ꮟ Ꮙ Ꮿ Ssiquoya ) (* around 1763 in Tuskegee; † August 1843 in San Fernando ) was the inventor of the Cherokee font that is used when writing the Cherokee language today.

Sequoyah ( George Guess predominantly English called, occasionally Gist, Guist Guyst or written ) was the son of a Cherokee Indian and an unlicensed dealer of European origin. The child grew up without his father in the Indian environment. His mother, who belonged to the "Red paint" Clan of the Cherokee ( Aniwodi clan ), operated a trading post in Tuskegee. The place that was called by the Cherokee Taskigi, lay on the Little Tennessee River near Fort Loudoun. This English fort was at the confluence of the Little Tennessee River and Tellico River. The local terrain of Tuskagee near present-day Vonore sank in 1979 with the flooding of Tellico Reservoir.

Life

In his early years, Sequoyah worked as a warrior and participated in many campaigns, in part, as also in 1814 at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. The following year he is said to have married his wife Sally.

When Sequoyah moved away from his birthplace, is not assured. There are supplying various whereabouts, but has only sparse. So Sequoyah supposed to have lived some time in Wills Town, Alabama. Later, he is apparently drawn from Alabama to Arkansas by then end up still further west to settle in Oklahoma.

He retired sometime a knee suffering, which is why he was able to operate either as a warrior or a hunter since that time. Maybe he therefore began to work as a blacksmith or silversmith. He is said to have developed in this area an astonishing craftsmanship.

Basically, however, it should be remembered that many of these data are assigned to Sequoyahs life rather vague and only little rich sources that are partially complete or not in time even contradict, so here is some uncertainty at least in part.

However, there is a detailed report of the American lawyer, writer and publisher Samuel Lorenzo Knapp (1783-1838), the occasion of the visit of a Cherokee delegation in the nation's capital with the help of two interpreters resulted in an extensive interview with Sequoyah in 1828 and the contents summarized in his book Lectures on American literature published that in 1829, the year after the meeting in Washington, came out.

Here many details not only on the person Sequoyah be reproduced, but it is also described, as he explains with the help of two translators the writer's invention of his signature. Just call it Lake - Quah - yah and says that his English name was George Guess. This spelling of the English name also coincides with the letters in the English-speaking meeting minutes of the Cherokee Nation from this period. Moreover told Knapp that lake - Quah - yah tells of himself that he was 65 years old, which he afterwards pushes approximate, since he apparently does not know himself his exact year of birth. Knapp also reported that sea - Quah - yah, had driven in contrast to the other members of the delegation, not in European clothing but in its traditional Cherokee clothing to Washington.

He describes him as an impressive personality, talking not only for his answers took adequate time to think and I have between pulled at his pipe, but that he also regularly inquired of the two interpreters, whether Knapp also understood everything correctly have. In addition, Knapp also mentions that Sequoyah also deal with computational methods as well as painting and drawing art.

Development of writing

Sequoyah reported Samuel Knapp during the visit in Washington in 1828, that he for the first time the idea of ​​a writing had come to develop, as he was a warrior and took part in one of the campaigns that around the time of the defeat of General St. Clair ( St. Clair 's Defeat ) took place at the Battle of the Wabash River or shortly thereafter. There was an incident with a prisoner of war, in which it had gone to the contents of a letter. This incident inspired a discussion among the Cherokee of Sequoyahs unit about which nature actually this " Talking Leaves" are. While his fellow warriors came to the conclusion that it constituted a special gift of the Great Spirit to the whites insisted Sequoyah contrast to his view that it constitutes something of human Developed and learned. Sequoyah reported that this matter had him about it though repeatedly occupied and he had often pondered about how the whites did it, but without ever seriously to tackle the matter. This went on for some time then, until a knee swelling forced him to dwell in the house. Due to the protracted illness, which resulted in the long run, that his bad leg was shortened and he then decreed for the rest of his life only through a restricted ability to walk and could not go hunting or go to war, he now began to seriously to deal with the mystery of Scripture. When exactly was this time, it can now be difficult to say, because Sequoyah made ​​no other times to the point where he introduces his work to the public. At least it is clear from his narrative that he was married and had children. Then it should have happened 1810-1820. His wife and children had actively supported him because he said of himself that his hearing was not sharp enough to to hear the subtleties of the sounds, but what is essential to developing sound character.

Sequoyah also reported that he had first tried to solve the problem with the help of pictures, such as birds or animals. He gave this idea but soon because the approach seemed to him futile soon. Then he came up with the idea to use the help of randomly selected characters without any visual reference to the illustrated syllable sounds. Only in a few exceptional cases, he had used mark with a figurative reference to the pronounced syllable, but only because it was easier to remember. In this way he succeeded with the support of his family, after many attempts to develop 200 characters, which were sufficient to reproduce the sounds of the Cherokee language in syllable spelling. With the help of his daughter Ayoka, who apparently had a special talent in this respect, it was possible this sign system to further refine and so reproduce at the end with only 86 characters, the language of the Cherokee writing. Then he began to hone the shape of the characters so that they would offer the viewer a more pleasing appearance. Up to this time he had carved the characters with a knife or a nail in bark. Now he let himself get paper and pen. He himself made ​​of bark extracts the necessary ink. After the pin post processed a bit, I managed to bring him his newly-developed characters on paper. During the development of these signs he had very strong withdrawn from social life of his tribe and some people already began to eye him suspiciously. He went at the end, however, with his invention to the public and led the tribal leadership its development together with his daughter before. After some initial skepticism, the tribal leadership was a fact that Sequoyah was to teach the scripture several young men in the next few months and you 'll then see. After a few months a meeting was again convened and Sequoyah could now clearly prove with the help of the young men that it is by no means constituted a non-transparent trickery, but a skill that can be quickly learned by anyone. The leadership of the tribe was thrilled with the presentation and decided that as many Cherokee this document should learn as quickly as possible. First, however, a great feast was once celebrated to honor the invention accordingly.

This demonstration took place in 1821 and Samuel L. Knapp mentioned in his report nor that perhaps many Americans had not even known that by now (1829 ) even Letter types were cast and printed a newspaper partly in Cherokee using this font will. It's Almost noted that he has great admiration for the power of Sequoyah, which he calls throughout Lake Quah - yah. Because of philological knowledge Knapp, one can assume that these phonetic reproduction comes very close to using the English spelling of the pronunciation.

Sequoyah had developed this completely independent writing system for the Cherokee language without further contact with whites and without any previous training. Also Knapp confirmed that Sequoyah could speak no other language and also read another font besides his native language than your own.

There was, however, among the Cherokee, a number of people who speak both English and could read, such as Charles Hicks, of which Sequoyah supposedly can show you how to write his name. He willed to his silversmith's art with his English surname mark, as it was customary at the time.

Therefore, it will be not have been difficult for him to be an English book to borrow from someone to suggestions to get for his characters. The meaning of these letters, however, he did not know.

With the 86 characters in his writing is now possible to play all occurring in the Cherokee language syllables. While many of the characters resemble letters of the Latin alphabet - partly lying on the side or standing on its head the Latin alphabet, but because he could not read English, their sound mapping is completely different. The top line in the picture that looks something like " CWY ", " tsalagi " ( = Cherokee ) is read, for example.

This document sat down soon after the legendary performance in 1821 among the Cherokee by, and after a relatively short time, there were hardly any illiteracy among them. Even Europeans fell on the ease of learning this new font. There are reports in which we read that the font of some Cherokee had been learned within 14 days, whereas in English schools claimed the literacy years. This quick learning brought the European missionaries to abandon the painstaking English Literacy in part and publish the New Testament into Cherokee font. Already in 1828 appeared with the Cherokee Phoenix, the first newspaper in the languages ​​Cherokee and English. Later, other newspapers followed in the Cherokeesprache. To date, the Cherokeesprache is written with its own script.

Sequoia trees

In 1847, recognized the well-known Viennese botanist Stephan finite after the had the wood, the bark, the needles and the pins of the coast redwood studied that it was the members of a new genus and was the only representative of this genus the name Sequoia gigantea. Since 1854 Decaisne had also given to the giant sequoia that name existed for almost a century a confusing situation, but this was resolved in 1939 by John T. Buchholz. Today, the scientific name for the coast redwood Sequoia sempervirens and for the giant sequoia Sequoiadendron giganteum is.

Finite Decaisne selected as the generic name Sequoia most likely in honor of the inventor of the Cherokee syllabary. That this enjoyed a certain fame in Europe mid-19th century, is impressively demonstrated by a report in the gazebo in 1869. Although there is apparently no reliable written evidence that finite and Decaisne chose their generic names in honor of Sequoyah, but it can be assumed, because this name is otherwise quite unusual.

Today lead back both the subfamily of the Sequoias ( Sequoioideae ) and their three genera, namely the giant sequoia ( Sequoiadendron ), the dawn redwood ( Metasequoia ) and coast redwood (Sequoia ) the scientific names of the inventors of the North American syllabary.

Similarly, the Sequoia National Park in California is named after him and at the same time is also the coast redwood, the state tree of this U.S. state.