4 ms·
The notion that Sequoyah was a monolingual Cherokee is dubious. He had a European father (though he was raised with his mother) and worked as a trader and serve
by rayiner 5mo ago
The notion that Sequoyah was a monolingual Cherokee is dubious. He had a European father (though he was raised with his mother) and worked as a trader and served in the U.S. Army. His cousin, to whom he presented his syllabary, was also half European, “George Lowery.” He had extensive contact with Europeans. Moreover, his syllabary includes adaptations of Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic letters. Part of the story is that he copied some character shapes from his wife’s family’s Bible. (Presumably they could read English if they had a Bible.)
He was obviously exposed to a variety of European writing. He completed his syllabary in 1821, many years after his military service. It seems highly unlikely that someone who was so linguistically gifted to be able to invent a syllabary would not have picked up some familiarity with spoken and written English through that exposure.
This article does a good job of reviewing the conflicting narratives of his history: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26467045 https://www.jstor.org/stable/26467045. It’s all very uncertain, and there’s a lot of mythology.
- TedDoesntTalk 5mo agoI found it interesting that you used the term European several times, but never once the term American. He served in the American military, lived in America, had an American father (according to the article). So you consider 19th century America to be Europe, or is there another reason for your choice of words?
- eesmith 5mo agoI find it interesting that you think "served in the U.S. Army" isn't American enough for you. Foreigners can serve in the US Army. Native Americans weren't automatically US citizens until 1924, but were considered citizens of their sovereign tribe. European here clearly means both "from Europe" (eg, Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic letters are European, not American), as well as "European Americans" (ie, Americans of European ancestry, and often with cultural ties to Europe.) Just like how "Asian" doesn't always mean "born in Asia", or how "Anglo" can refer to non-Hispanic white Americans rather than being specifically related to England. Trading with the Spanish in Florida, English ships, or French trappers would all count as "contact with Europeans", and not simply "Americans". Finally, recall that at the time "American" was a state of mind. A Loyalist at the time would not consider themselves "American", and a Patriot considered a Loyalist to be "inimical to the liberties of America". How do you know if Sequoyah’s father was an American or a Loyalist?
- TedDoesntTalk 5mo agoLoyalists were gone by from America by the mid-1780s.
- bcjdjsndon 5mo agoHe's owned you there Ted, made you look a right tool
- karavelov 5mo agoArticle says he was born in 1770s, so his missing father can be Loyalist
- simiones 5mo ago"American" would be ambiguous in this context, right? Both the Cherokee and the English-speaking residents of the USA are American, but the specific point here was about whether Sequoyah was only a Cherokee speaker or if he had any knowledge of English, Spanish, French, Latin or any other European language. In this context, saying that Sequoyah's father was "American" would not make any point - it wouldn't tell anyone reading the comment that he was not Cherokee nor from any other native population; whereas European makes that point succinctly.