Cherokee Small Letter Que

It represents the Cherokee syllable conventionally transliterated “que.”

The Cherokee syllabary writes Cherokee with signs for syllables. Here, “que” is a conventional Latin transliteration, not part of Cherokee spelling.

The writing system took shape between 1815–1821 as a practical way to write Cherokee. A 1828 account in the Cherokee Phoenix newspaper describes a shift from signs for whole words to syllable signs; it recounts how a letter carried from Arkansas showed that Cherokee writing could be read far from where it was written. This history concerns the syllabary, not the later lowercase form.

Why is ꮗ different from Ꮗ?

They are lowercase and uppercase forms of the same Cherokee syllable.

Traditional Cherokee writing is largely caseless and often uses uppercase-looking forms. Unicode 8.0 added lowercase letters so modern typesetting could mark case while keeping compatibility with older uppercase-oriented fonts.

Cherokee belongs to the Iroquoian language family, whose other members include Cayuga, Seneca, Onondaga, Wyandot-Huron, Tuscarora, Oneida, and Mohawk. That means the languages are related; it does not show that this sign was borrowed from their writing systems. In 1827, Samuel Worcester and collaborators finalized Cherokee type for printing.

How do I type ꮗ?

Use a Cherokee keyboard layout; changing fonts alone won't type it.

Cherokee layouts differ: some use Latin-key mnemonics, some dead keys, and others frequency-based arrangements. The selected layout determines the keystrokes for this syllable.

As of 2026, Cherokee typefaces still vary in lowercase coverage. If ꮗ appears as a box, the selected font lacks this form; choose a font with Cherokee support.