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Cherokee Syllabary: Writing the People's Perserverance(American Indian Literature and Critical Studies 56) H 260 p. 11

Cushman, Ellen  著

在庫状況 海外在庫有り  お届け予定日 20日間 
価格 \8,928(税込)         
発行年月 2011年12月
出版社/提供元
University of Oklahoma Press
出版国 アメリカ合衆国
言語 英語
媒体 冊子
装丁 hardcover
ページ数/巻数 260 p.
ジャンル 洋書/人文科学/言語学 /言語学:概論
ISBN 9780806142203
商品コード 1003693810
書評掲載誌 Language 2014/06, Choice 2012/07
商品URLhttps://kw.maruzen.co.jp/ims/itemDetail.html?itmCd=1003693810

内容

In 1821, Sequoyah, a Cherokee metalworker and inventor, introduced a writing system that he had been developing for more than a decade. His creation—the Cherokee syllabary—helped his people learn to read and write within five years and became a principal part of their identity. This groundbreaking study traces the creation, dissemination, and evolution of Sequoyah’s syllabary from script to print to digital forms. Breaking with conventional understanding, author Ellen Cushman shows that the syllabary was not based on alphabetic writing, as is often thought, but rather on Cherokee syllables and, more importantly, on Cherokee meanings.

Employing an engaging narrative approach, Cushman relates how Sequoyah created the syllabary apart from Western alphabetic models. But he called it an alphabet because he anticipated the Western assumption that only alphabetic writing is legitimate. Calling the syllabary an alphabet, though, has led to our current misunderstanding of just what it is and of the genius behind it—until now.

In her opening chapters, Cushman traces the history of Sequoyah’s invention and explains the logic of the syllabary’s structure and the graphic relationships among the characters, both of which might have made the system easy for native speakers to use. Later chapters address the syllabary’s enduring significance, showing how it allowed Cherokees to protect, enact, and codify their knowledge and to weave non-Cherokee concepts into their language and life. The result was their enhanced ability to adapt to social change on and in Cherokee terms.

Cushman adeptly explains complex linguistic concepts in an accessible style, even as she displays impressive understanding of interrelated issues in Native American studies, colonial studies, cultural anthropology, linguistics, rhetoric, and literacy studies. Profound, like the invention it explores, The Cherokee Syllabary will reshape the study of Cherokee history and culture.