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  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Algic Languages, was Problem uncovered by foreign leader
  • Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:14:18 EDT



> >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')"

---------------------------
"Look unto the rock from which ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit from
which ye are digged." </HTML>




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