# What was that Native American language with the invented alphabet? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 4, 2009, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-that-native-american-language-with-the-invented-alphabet/492001 "2009-04-04T22:02:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2009, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-that-native-american-language-with-the-invented-alphabet/492001/1 "2009-04-04T22:02:40Z")
It seems to me there was a Straight Dope article about a Native American who, having learned to read English using the standard Latin alphabet, returned to his native lands and invented a phoenetic transliteration for his own language. I recall many of the characters being very similar to Latin characters, although some of them were simply reversed left-to-right. Anybody remember what it is? I can’t seem to find a reference for it. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2009, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-that-native-american-language-with-the-invented-alphabet/492001/2 "2009-04-04T22:03:43Z")
Sequoyah invented the Cherokee alphabet. References, well, anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2009, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-that-native-american-language-with-the-invented-alphabet/492001/3 "2009-04-04T22:04:23Z")
[Cherokee](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoyah). ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2009, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-that-native-american-language-with-the-invented-alphabet/492001/4 "2009-04-04T22:09:06Z")
Thanks for the quick response. I must be misremembering the characters that I saw, because I could’ve sworn there were some back-to-front Latin versions. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2009, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-that-native-american-language-with-the-invented-alphabet/492001/5 "2009-04-04T22:15:49Z")
Looking at the complete [syllabary](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee_syllabary), there are several which resemble Latin characters and Arabic numerals. And there are few which look like familiar characters mirrored, rotated or both. For example, _da_ looks like a backwards J, _hu_ resembles an upside-down rotated L and _lv_ seems like a mirrored f. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2009, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-that-native-american-language-with-the-invented-alphabet/492001/6 "2009-04-04T22:58:33Z")
Are you perhaps thinking of the [Cree syllabary](http://www.omniglot.com/writing/cree.htm)? Or [Inuktitut](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuktitut_syllabics)? Some of them look a little like backwards Latin characters, I suppose, though to me they look a lot more like shorthand. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2009, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-that-native-american-language-with-the-invented-alphabet/492001/7 "2009-04-05T09:37:07Z")
Sequoyah could not read English, as far as I know. He simply saw and used some of the letterforms. The sound values he assigned are completely unrelated.