Arkansas. A Cherokee Indian named Sequoyah invented Cherokee writing. This is a well-documented example, as it occurred in the modern era and is therefore of great interest. Sequoyah was a blacksmith, and initially, before 1810, for convenience in keeping accounts, he felt the need to draw a picture of each customer, and then draw circles and lines to remember each one’s debts. Around 1810, he decided to invent a writing system for the Cherokee language, that is, a graphic representation of the Cherokee language, which existed only in spoken form. He began with his drawings, but abandoned them because they were too laborious. He then began to invent a system of different symbols for each word, but after a few thousand, he realized that this too was too laborious. Then he decided to use symbols for each sound that occurs in different words (what we call syllables). He began with 200 signs, which he then reduced to 85. He thus invented an alphabet that was later much admired, suitable for the Cherokee language and sounds, and an excellent example of the birth of a writing system through “idea diffusion”.
