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POETHT.
FOR THE CHEROKEE PHOENIX,
TRANSLATION OF THE LORD 1 * PRAYER.
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Literal Translation of the Lord's Pray
er from Cherokee into English.
Our Father, who dwellest above,
honored be thy name. Let thy em
pire spring to light. Let thy will be
done on earth as it is done above.—
Our food day by day bestow upon us.
Pity us in regard to our having sinned
against thee, as we pity those who
sin against us. And lead us not into any
place of straying, but, on the other
nand, restrain us from sin. For thine
is the empire, and the strength, and
the honor forever. So let it be.
The above is perhaps as literal a
translation, as can well be given in
English of the Lord’s prayer in Cher
okee, as it stands at the head this of co
lumn. As, however, the Cherokee
cannot be said to be a strictly literal
translation from the original, so neith
er is the English from the Cherokee.
The idiom of the one language is so
widely different from that of the oth
er, that literal translations appear to
be an impossibility. W.
From the “ Marus iipt.”
GEN. WASHINGTON’S ESCAPE.
When the American army w as sta
tioned at West Point, during the revo
lutionary w r ar, the British head quar
ters were not many miles distant, on
the Hudson; and each were waiting,
like the figures on a chess board, for
some favorable movement, to discon
cert and thwart the operations of the
other. Scouting parties would engage
n frequent skirmishes; and waggons of
provisions, ammunition and clothing
would fall into, the power of those su
perior in number and address. On one
of these occasions a quantity of Eng
lish uniform was seized by an Ameri
can detachment; and several notable
advantages, obtained by the latter, in
spired the enemy with a desire to se-
taliate. About this time, while at
West Point, General Washington had
an intimate acquaintance, not far resi
dent from the army, in whose family he
enjoyed the kindest hospitality, as
well as relief from many of those ster
ner engagements which harassed h : s
weary mind. As every circumstance
was food to either army, a visit like
this not many miles from their camp,
could not long escape the cognizance
of the English; and to possess a pris
oner like Gen. Washington, would
tend, in their opinion, to shorten the
period of the war. But the underta
king was difficult: there were always
advanced guards to cover the Ameri
can commander, an l there was no mode
of discovering his viaitsj except by
winning over some one of the family.
The friend whom the general visited
was once thought to l»ave espoused the
interests of the British, but he had ta
ken a decided stand in favor of Amer
ica, and though a brave man, he pro
fessed the strictest neutrality alleging*'forbid!” said his friend, become less re-
as his reason—his years, and depend
ent family.
During the intimacy of the. Gene
ral, it was rumored in the American
army, that his friend had been seen of
ten running from the British cainp.—
Washington seemed to disregard the
account; for he never ceased to visit
the family, and, apparently, min
gled as cordially with the host, as if no
suspicion had crossed his mind.—At
length, one day, as the General was
taking his leave, his friend earnestly
requested him to dine with him the fol
lowing afternoon, emphatically nam
ing the hour of two, as the moment of
expecting him. He reminded him of
the uncommon delight which his inti
macy conferred, begged him lo lay a.
side every formality & i eg. rd his nouse
as his home; & hinted that he feared the
general did not consider it in that light,
as the guard that always accompanied
him seemed to indicate he was not vis
iting a friend. “By no means, dear
sir!” exclaimed the worthy patriot;
"•there is no man 1 esteem more than
yourself; and as a proof of the con
fidence which 1 repose in you, I
will visit you alone to-morrow, and i
pledge my sacred word of honor, that
not a soldier shall accompany me.”—
“Pardon me, general,” cried the host;
“but why so serious on so trilling a
subject? I merely jested.” “I am
aware of it,” said the hero, smiling;
but what of that? 1 have long consid
ered the planting of these outposts un
necessary, inasmuch as they may ex
cite the suspicion of the enemy; and al
though it be a trifle shall not sport with
the friendship you indulge for me.”—
“But then—the hour, general?”—“Oh
yes, two o’clock you said.” “Pre
cisely!” returned the other.
At one o’clock on the following day,
the general mounted his favorite horse
and proceeded alone, upon a bye-road
which conducted him to the hospitable
mansion. It was about half an hour
before the time, and the bustling host
received him with open arms, in addi
tion to the greetings of the delighted
family. “How punctual, kind sir,”
exclaimed his warm hearted friend.
“Punctuality,” replied Washington, ;s
an angel virtue, embracing minor as
well as important concerns. He that
is unpunctual with a friend, may doubt
his integrity.” The host started: but
recovering himself, he added—“then
yours is a proof that we enjoy your full
est confidence.” Washington propos
ed a promenade upon the piazza, pre
vious to the dinner. It overlooked a
rough country several miles in extent;
fields of grain, here and there sweep
ing beneath the sides of bleak hills pro
ducing nothing but rocks and grass—
shallow rivulets of the uneven waste—
then hidden by woodlands intercepting
a prospect of the country beyond—spot
ted now and then with silver glimpses
of the Hudson, stealing through the
sloping grounds below, and chequered
on both sides by the dim,purple High
lands, frowning sometimes into hoaty
battlements, and tapering again into
gentle valleys, hardly illuminated by
the sun. “This is fine, bold scenery!”
exclaimed the general, apparenty ab
sorbed in the beauty of the prospect.
“Yes, sir,” replied his friend, looking
wishfully around, as if expecting some
one’s approach; but catching the pierc
ing glance of Washington, his eyes
were fastened confusedly on the floor.
“I must rally you, my friend,” ob
served the General; “doyou perceive
yonder point, that rises from the water
and suddenly is lost behind that hill
which obstinately checks the view?”
u I do,” replied the absent listener,
engaged apparently in something else
than the subject of inquiry. “There,”
continued the hero, “my enemy lies
encamped; and were it not for a slight
mist, I could almost fancy that I perc-
nivA Yiig ratrolrv mnvlnnf Kul lio J,
C9ts that swelled along the bosom of the
landscape. “Would it not be strange,
observed the general, apparently un
conscious of the movements behind
him, “ that after all my toils fc America
should forfeit her liberty ?” “Heaven
eive his cavalry moving; but hark, that
cannon! do you think it proceeds
from the head-quarters of the ene
my
While pointing out to his friend the
profile of the country, the face of the
latter was often turned the opposite
way, seemingly engrossed in another
object immediately behind the house.
He was not mistaken, it was a troop
seemingly, of British horse, that were
descending a distant hill, winding thro’
a labyrinth of numerous projections
and trees, until they were seen gallop
ing through the valley below—and then
again they were hidden by a field of for-
nd entering more warmly into
the feelfhgs of the other.—“But*” re
sumed Washington, “I have heard of
treachery in the heart of one's own
camp: and, doubtless, you know that it
is possible ‘to be wounded even in the
house of one’s friend.” “Sir,” de
manded the downcast host, unable to
meet the searching glance of his com-'
pamion, “who can possibly intend so
daring a crime?” “I only meant,” re
plied the other, “that treachery was
the most hideous of crimes: for, Judas
like, it will even sell its Lord for mo
ney!” “ V T eiy true, dear sir,” respon
ded the anxious host, as he gazed up
on a troop of British horse, winding
round the hill, and riding with post
haste towards the hospitable mansion.
“Is it not two o’clock yet?” demand
ed Washington; “ for 1 have an en
gagement this afternoon at the
army and I regret that my
visit must therefore be short
er than I intended.” “It lacks a full
quarter yet!” said his friend, seming
doubtful of his watch, from the arrival
ol the horsemen. “But, bless me, sir!
what cavalry are those that are so ra
pidly approaching the house!” “Oh,
they may possibly be a party of British
light horse,” returned his companion
coolly, “whioh mean no harm; and, if
l mistake not, they have been sent for
the purpose of protecting me.” As
he said this, the captain of the troop
was seen dismounting from his horse:
and his example was. followed by the
rest of the party. “General,” return
ed the false friend, walking to him ve
ry familiarly, and tapping him on the
shoulder, “General, you are my pris
oner!” “I believe not,” said Wash
ington. looking calmly at the men who
were approaching the steps; “but,
friend,” exclaimed he, slapping him in
return on the arm, "‘I know that you
are mine! Here, officer, carry this
treacherous hypocrite to the camp,
and I will make him an example to the
enemies of America.”
The British General had secretly
offered an immense sum to this man, to
make an appointment with the hero, at
two o’clock, at which time he was to
send a troop of horse, to secure him in
their possession. Suspecting his in
tentions, Washington had directed his
own troop to habit themselves as En
glish cavalry, and arrive half an hour
precisely before the time he was ex
pected.
They pursued their way to the camp
triumphing at the sagacity of their
commander, who had so astonishingly
defeated the machinations of the Bri
tish General. But the humanity of
Washington prevailed over his sense of
justice. Overcome by the prayers
and tears of the family, he pardoned
his treacherous friend, on conditon of
his leaving the country forever, which
he accordingly did; and his name was
ever afterwards sunk in oblivion.
FOR THE CHEltOKEE PHffiNIX.
CHEROKEE ALPHABET.
Mr. Boudinott—As your paper is
about to make its appearance before
the public, and is to be printed as your
Prospectus informs us, partly in the
Cherokee language, and in the new
and singular character invented by
Mr. Guess, I presume that some re
marks on that character will not be
unacceptable to some of your English
readers. I submit the following to
your disposal with the simple remark,
that, if any mistakes should occur in
representing the sounds of the several
letters you \Vill be able to make the
necessary corrections.
The following is the Cherokee Al
phabet in the order in which it. was
arranged by its inventor.
R
* M
* y
VV If C 5, d) P
op W V W B
* C tO V X
E 6 T )l i
a e s l © i
a, a h> t, is
•A *§ y >& b
■9 a (® ii r
Z S (S R [i
<T a .1 K *V“ q
0- 1 r f A*
A CH S.
The number of characters is 85.—
The original number was 86, one of
which has since been omitted, as be
ing too little distinct in the sound rep
resented by it from the character
The arrangement, like that of all
other alphabets of which I have any
knowledge, is entirely without system.
The characters' appear to have been
placed in the order in which they pre-
sented.themselves to the mind or to
the eye of the inventor, when he was
putting the finishing stroke to his work,
s, after
t for
m
by embodying his signs ofs
having found his-number s
writing all the words of tVi
A systematic arrangeme?
characters, with the sounds e
by means of the Roman lett
be attempted below. But it
sary first lo explain the ma
which some of the Roman letters
used.
The vowels have the following sound
a as a m father, or short as a in rival-,
e as a in hate, or short as e in net;
i as i in pique, or short as t in pit",
o as aw in law, or short as o in not;
u as oo in Jool, or short as u in full.
To these add v as ti in hut, made nasal,
nearly as if followed by. the French nasal n.
This sound is not found in the'English lan
guage. I have used the letter v as a vowel,
because it is necessary to have some repre
sentative of the sound, &. this letter, when
the use of it is explained, will answer the
design as well as another.
The consonants are. used as follows.
d represents nearly the same sound as in
pr<
English, but approximating to that of t.
g nearly the same, as its hard sound in.
English, but approxiiriatnig to Jc.
h, k, 1, m, n, g, s, t, w, y, as in Eng
lish. The letter q, as iti English, is inva
riably followed by u, with the same power,
'oft'
The sounds of the other Roman conso
nants never occur.*
t* > >
bft-cs
W 3
cp ^ ^
-392 S S 3 « 3 3
o
° o s.
fe5J2g§5-goo
—I A ^ *0 N A
rS
.« S s o»'<« '-3 ~
>> ^ e. a a g, a
1 o x © *9
To « & g £ I s O* § « £ S
•r (sAo.'os'lQ*
-a
03
a
4) <U
to *-
■j fr
ig <0-
<a
^ o3 -a ^2
05 bD K
P * ^
O
03
a
,a
4> ffl
‘2-3
* ^
ce-2
Iti 3 _ ... —
S gj cr co -q ^
^ <b a < <3
<3 <8
Those syllables which are written
with the consonant g, except s ga,
sometimes have the sound of k. a do
s du, <r» dv, are sometimes sounded to,
tu, tv. Those written with tl, except
c tla, sometimes vary to dl. Instead
of ts, might be written ds, but the dis
tinction is not very perceptible. A
German would write with sufficient
accuracy za,za, &c.
Each character expresses a sylla
ble by itself, with the exception of «,
which has precisely the power of the
Roman s, and is never used but as a
prefix to a syllable beginning with the
sound of g, q, or d, unless, occasion
ally, before © ka, \v ta, t te, and a till.
To dispense with this character, and
substitute in its stead a separate char
acter for each of its combinations,
would require the addition of 17 new
characters. This would make the
whole number amount to 102, and
would render the alphabet entirely syl
labic.
This circumstance of the alphabet
being syllabic, and the number of syl
lables so small, is the greatest reason
why the task of learning to read the
Cherokee language is so vastly easier
than that of learning to read English.
•Those persons who are acquainted with
the Alphabet used by the Hon. Mr. Pick
ering of Boston, in his Cherokee Gram
mar, [yet unfinished,] will perceive the fol
lowing differences between it and the one
given above.
1. The sound is here represented by the
vowel o which, in his alphabet, is express
ed by means of a new character; and the
sound of o in tone or short as in intonate is
omitted. 1 have not used the new char
acter for want of type: and have tak,en the
letter o in its stead, as not being necessary
for the expression of the other sound, which
appears never to occur, unless in the single
syllable qvo, w.
2. The sound of u in dumb, also ex
pressed in Mr. Pickering’s Grammar by a
new character, is here omitted. It does in
deed at first hearing appear to he of fre
quent recurrence; but critical observation,
especially when the words are sung, or
' ” ' 11 '
when, by a change of location, the syllable
in question becomes accented, will discover
the sound to be that of a in father, only
shortened. Indeed an English ear will find
it hard to discriminate between the sound
of u in dumb, and that of a in rival, or in
the second syllabic cf .fidam.
3. The letterr is used instead of anoth
er new character of Mr. Picke»ing’s for
.want of his type.
4. The combb -tion qu is used instead
of lew, as being more familiar.
When an English scholar Recollects
the tedious months occupied in his
spellmg-book, he regards it as a I
matter of astonishment, and nearly in- /j
credib'hj, .that an active Cherokee boy |
may learn to read his own language in
a day, and that not more than two or
three days is ordinarily requisite^-,
let such is believed to be theiAcW^*
Nor is it so great a mystery to one
fjpio has learned to read both langua-
and who reflects a little on the
ct. When ?n English child has
leafflfed the names of his letters, he
has bur just begun learning to read.—
The ma^ thing is to learn the combinar-
tions of soufids; unless, indeed, it be a
still more difficult task, to divest him
self of the idea that he must pronounce
the name of each successive letter in
order to read. If, for illustration, ha y
were to be pronounced be-a, he would
soon learn. But after^ifice learning to
irondunce the letter to detach
i om the consonant sound, that of the
vowel e, and at f ach to it that of a in
one instance, i in another, and so on,
and in the same manner to learn a
thousand other, and some of them ex
tremely complicated combinations, is
d. But the Cherokee boy
a task indee
has not a single combination to learn
except that of s with a succedingcon
sonant; & the name of each character
is the syllable which it represents. To
read is only to repeat successively the
names of the several letters. When,
therefore, he has learned two charac
ters, he can read a word composed of
those two; when he has leartied three,
he can read any word written with
those three, and when he has learned
his alphabet, he can read his language.
I say he can read, not perfectly, hut
he can spell out the meaning, and, by .
practice, may become perfect. JJj
But another very important advan
tage which this alphabet has over the
Roma’i, as applied to the writing of the
English language, is that, excepting the
variations of longer or shelter, harder
or softer, as from (d to t,) and more or
less aspirated sounds each cnaracter
is the invariable representative of the
same sounrhwhile in English the same
sound may flive half a dozen different
signs, or the same sign'may represent,
as many different sou dg. The alphabet
used by Mr. Pickering in his Cherokee
Grammar, and some other modi
fications of the Roman alphabet, as
applied to languages till lately unwrit
ten, possess the samd*^ advantage.—
Hence it Iff that a San^viqh Islander,
though, as I suppose, hie cannot equal
the Cherokee with his syllabic alpha
bet, will yet, in the Vapidity with
which he acquires the a$t of reading,
leave* every English schwar far behind.
Another source of wonder in regard
to the Cherokee alphabet is, that s©
few syllabic characters are suflu ient t©
write a language. Certainly they are
sufficient to write it, and thal, for the
reason implied in the last paragraph,
in a manner Vastly more perfect thanj
the English language is written byl
means of the Roman alphabet of let
ters. Two things account for the few*
ne§s of the requisite syllabic charac>
ters. First the fewness of consonani
sounds in the language^; Secondly 1
and chiefly, the circum^ance that et
ery syllable in the language ends with
vowel sound. A little cfficulation wili
I
shew what a vast
circumstance make,
possible syllables
ample, the^numbe
pound consonant
languages to be
of vowel sounds,
guage a vowel
stitute a sylla
syllable ends
in Cherokee,
glish,) a syll
end, or both,
though the n
of vowels is t
yet, if my
number of po!
ter is 1536,
only 96. On
bic method of
applicable totl
Sea Jslands, v
dian languages,
example, its ap
to on iinpossibi
been made in
mentioned
residing
ce the lattei
the number of
ippose, for e*(j
imple and comf:
in each of twl
and the numbt
ble
^tx: in either Ian
le; but in one ever
a vowel sound, (a
the other, (as in Eli
may either begin < i
a consonant. NoV f
er of.-fcbnsonants ai
ameineiifch languag
metic is correct, t! \
syllables in the la
le, in the former it f
account the syllj
g would be reat
ages of flic Sot
some of
Cbocta;
would bej
attemp
to the
a gentle*
, who, hat
is eharact
ieve, than 600, was
ether his task was acc^
To the Cherokee Irnguj
the fWstem is proved to he opplic
and f earnestly hope that the
its application will he such as^
I the just oceason of many thankss'
jto God.
of!