On This Date in History: Ever wonder how a language was invented
or who took the time to take an oral language and turn it into a
written language? How about words? I mean, I’m looking at Nit
and Wit and I”m the one who came up with their names, including
their alter egos Barfette and Poop-a-lot and Fat and Cat.
Now…the last one…cat. Where did that originate? Why is a cat a
cat and a dog a dog and not the other way around? I’m not sure
of all of those answers but I do have an answer for a couple of
items. Seems that the Cherokee Nation had a language but it was
never written down. There was no alphabet. In the early 19th
century, a young man became fascinated by the books of the white
man. He was the son of an Indian woman and a white man. Some
kids have dreams of being a ball player or an astronaut or
something. This kid dreamed of creating a written language.
First, he took all of the Cherokee sounds and separated into 85
syllables. Then, he used the Bibles of missionaries as a guide
and created a new alpha