Cherokee Letter U

It represents the Cherokee syllable u.

Cherokee Nation teaching materials approximate its sound with “oo” in English “fool” or the short “u” in “pull.” These English spellings are pronunciation guides; Ꭴ belongs to Cherokee writing.

On its own, Ꭴ gives you a syllable, not a word or translation. Read it with the Cherokee word or phrase around it.

How did the Cherokee syllabary begin?

Sequoyah developed a writing system for Cherokee speech.

The Cherokee syllabary history begins with Sequoyah’s work in 1815–1821. After exploring an idea of one sign per word, he developed signs for Cherokee syllables. A 2011 archaeological study interpreted early cave engravings as experiments with the new script, supporting its development as an invention rather than an inherited ancestral system.

The Cherokee syllabary’s purpose was to put Cherokee speech in writing and support literacy during a period of pressure and forced removal. The Cherokee Nation adopted it in 1825; Cherokee collaborators and missionary Samuel Worcester finalized print type in 1827; and the Cherokee Phoenix began bilingual printing in 1828. As of 2026, Cherokee Nation teaching materials include syllabary charts. Canadian syllabics, used for Cree and other Indigenous languages, developed in the late 1830s. They are a separate script, though scholarship reports that James Evans may have been influenced by Cherokee success.