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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> >Cherokee is one of the few places where a written language rose
> independently by a native speaker. I cannot remember but I think it only
> happened in three or four places. 
> 

When doing some internet look-ups, I ran across "lesson plans" once by chance 
 about George Guess.  One of the cutesy questions suggested in the lesson was 
"what does Sequoia mean?"  The answer was "No one knows."

No wonder I don't have my children in school.

George Guess had been shot through the leg during military service and it 
have him a permanent stiff legged limp.  Because of this he could not do the 
regular work of the day and had a lot of time on his hands.  This let him 
have a 
lot of time for sepculation which led him to think about his own language to 
the point of coming up single handed with a writing system.  Tsalagi has only 
six vowel sounds and almost all syllables are open (end in a vowel).  This 
lends 
it perfectly to representing each syllable with a single symbol.  88 symbols 
covers just about all possible syllables.

There are many place names here left over from the time when Cherokee was a 
common language.  For example, a small town near here in Virginia is 
Chilhowee. 
 It is the anglicizaton of 'tsi-l'ha-wi" =  'many deer'.   A town to the 
south of here in Tennessee is Uneka which is 'u-ne-ga' = "white" as in 'white 
people'.

The earliest Europeans who came to the Southern Appalachians were an odd 
lingusitic lot, speaking French, German, Portuguese, Gaelic, and apparently 
English was not in the majority.  When they pitched about to find people 
whose 
English they could imitate, the best English speakers were the Cherokee.  So 
they 
adopted a manner of speach with a strong Tsalagi accent, pure vowel sounds 
(few 
diphthongs) and a clear nasal vowel, and a prosidy that was very measured 
with equal accent on multi-syllable words.  

This speech pattern mixed with bits of Gaelic and other languages to give the 
very strong regional Appalachian speech.

For example in Scottish Gaelic there is no actual present tense.  One does 
not say, "I work" but rather "I am at working" (Tha mi aig obair).  Imposing 
the 
English words with a Tsalagi accent over that concept, we have the manerism 
of speech "I'm a' thinkin' that's right"  "I'm a' goin fishin')"

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