The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1859-10-06


The Invention of a New Alphabet.
One of the most remarkable events OF the
present century was the invention OF the
Cherokee alphabet 10y an "untutored saw
age Ii was almost as great a stretch of
genius as the production of the first alpha
bet by Cadmus. The editor of the Fort
Smith Times, who was the first printer that
set the types of the Cherokee alphabet
gives the following deeply interesting ac-
count of its production, and of the extra
ordinary man who invented il s.a
George Guess, the inventor, was half
breed Cherokee, but could not speak the
English language, and OF course was an un-
educated man, without even the knowledge
of letters, or characters of any language
whatever. He was, in every respect, the
same as full-blood Indian. It appeara
that the irst idea lie ever had about
writing, was when he was a young man, en-
gagged in war, and il we recollect right,
when at st. Clair''s defeat, he, and some Of
his Cherokee companions were together,
one of them picked mp piece of paper with
writing omit and looked at it awhile, remark
ed that it was very strange that the white
people could put down talk on piece of pa
per, and send it to another person at a dis
tance, and that person could understand the
talk on the paper. To this Guess replied
that it was not very hard to do the like,
and took up fiat stone, and with smaller
one made few marks and then pretended
TO read them to the others
After this, the matter passed off from his
thoughts for many years; but the subject
presented itself again to his mind, after ob.
serving the advantages thelwhite people de-
rived from books. He therefore, without
consulting any of his friends, put him up
log cabin, some distance from the cabin in
which his family lived, and set about study
ing out an alphabet for the Cherokee Lam
guage. His house was then in Wills Valley,
in the then limits of Alabama, but at that
time occupied as the old Cherokee Nation.
We have seen the spot many times and have
been upon it; the cabin was gone, and the
place grown up with bushes. In this retreat,
Guess secluded himself from his family and
friends, and neglected his corn field, and all
of his matters, and so much was he occu-
pied in the invention, and so engrossed was
his mind upon the subject, that he was sup
posed TO be bewitched, by his Cherokee
neighbors, and what made it appear more
like something was the matter with him,
was the fact, that no one knew what he was
doing and they supposed that be was en-
gagged with evil spirits or witches.
In all his studies ne had no books, but
an old spelling book of Noah Webster's, and
he did not knew letter or word in il. For
two years he eontinued his studies, and
tried in every manner TO fall,uPon some
plan to represent sounds. He attempted by
the whistling Of birds, bat that did not aid
him much. An tDisy ytime-he did not fag or
appear to be discouraged@h fields grew up
in grass and weeds, and his family had to
subsist without, his aid NoAone visited
him ia his studies, except little daughter,
and all were wondering what he was doing.
His wife became tired Of his conduct, and
upbraided him, but he continued his course,
and after he had satisfied bimSelf that he
had succeeded, he learned his little daugh-
ter the characters, so she could read. The
characters consisted of s6 in number, VIXEN
| first Invented, but one of. them has since
been dropped, and now there are only s5,
all of them syllabies except one, which is
Kissing sound, and may he properly call
ed S. ......
| After he had finished his alphabet, he
tried to get some of his people to learn it,
but they would have nothing to do with it.
His little daughter would read anything her
father would write to their people, but they
| could not be induced to learn the alphabet,
believing there was witchcraft in it, and af-
ter trying long time to induce bis
people TO learn il, he found he could do
nothing with them, so he came TO Arkansas,
and among them he found those who were
willing to learn the alphabet; and after he
had been in Arkansas some time, he pro-
cured the writing of several letters in his
new alphabet, addressed TO his old friends in
the Cherokee Nation, east, and returned
home, if our memory serves us, and after
producing them, he prevailed on those Ia
whom the letters were written, to. learn the
alphabet, and they read the letters, and
from that time the knowledge began Il
spread of putting talk on paper, Throughout
the nation, and crude alphabets were writ
ten on paper, sometimes on boards, or til,
side of n tree was hewn smooth, and the al
phabet written on it with charcoal. raa
We recollect when we first entered th
nation, on riding along the road, of seeing
Cherokee characters written in the trees
and, also, names cut in the bark of tn
beech. ..
We do not recollect when the alphabe
was invented, but presume twas about ls2
I or '25 We would here remark, that as tn
! characters are only syllable, and it is onl.
necessary to learn them TO he able to rea
,, at once, without going through the tediou
! process OF learning to spell, as in the Eng
e liSh and other languages. There are 81
vowels, and to these six vowels are attache
; consonants, or sounds, like TO our ba, be, b
: DO, bu, by, SC, though with the Cherokee
z there is no sound of b, {, p, or V, in th
whole language, and full. blood India
. cannot articula,e these sounds. The lips Al
seldom nsed except in the use of the M. an
that is only used in reference to the nam
water, or salt, as one word-ama-is use
I for both. u
In 1927, through the aid of Worceste