Cherokee Small Letter Lu

It represents the Cherokee syllable “lu.”

A Cherokee syllabary sign represents a spoken syllable, so ꮇ normally belongs inside a Cherokee word. On its own in a message outside Cherokee text, it is best read as a sample of the letter or a reference to Cherokee writing; the surrounding conversation decides more.

Why was the Cherokee syllabary created?

It gave Cherokee speakers a way to write their language.

Sequoyah first tried marks for whole words, then developed reusable signs for syllables. The Cherokee syllabary took shape in 1815–1821, and Cherokee type was finalized in 1827.

The Cherokee Phoenix began printing Cherokee alongside English in 1828, covering news and public affairs. One written syllable could represent pronunciations that varied between dialects. Unicode 16.0 describes ongoing Cherokee use in Oklahoma and North Carolina. Cree syllabics later drew inspiration from Cherokee’s success, but they are a separate writing system.

Why does ꮇ look different from Ꮇ?

They are small and cap-height forms of the same Cherokee syllable.

Most early Cherokee print used one cap-height set, without an uppercase/lowercase distinction. A later lowercase set lets cased text distinguish small and capital forms while preserving the size of older glyphs and existing layouts.

Some older fonts support Ꮇ but not ꮇ, so the small form may appear as a box or fallback character. That points to missing font support; both forms represent the same syllable.