American Alphabets

Writing was independently developed in the Americas by the Olmecs, a people who inhabited Middle America (Southern Mexico, Guatemala, and points south) perhaps as early as 600 B.C. Much of their writing is still undecipherable, and reached its peak with Mayan civilization. The Aztecs inherited this system, which was still largely pictographic, but it gradually faded away after the Spanish conquest in 1521. Further south, the Incas could record numbers, but not words.

Two writing systems were developed in North America during the 1800's. Sequoyah (ca. 1765-1843), though illiterate himself, created a syllabary for the Cherokee language.

In 1840, James Evans went to Canada as a missionary to the Cree Indians. He tried to use Roman letters to write the Cree language, but the Cree sounds were too different from English. Eventually, Evans invented his own symbols. Cree words tend to be long; to shorten the writing, he used only one letter for each syllable. This writing system that he developed in order to translate the Bible turned out to be so simple that it is said one person could teach another in half a day. Capable Cree assistants helped Evans translate the Bible.