Cherokee Small Letter So

It represents the Cherokee syllable “so.” Cherokee writing uses signs for syllables, so this character supplies one sound-value inside a word rather than a full English-style letter name or a complete reply.

Sequoyah developed the Cherokee syllabary in the early nineteenth-century to write the Cherokee language. Inscriptions at Red Bird River Shelter preserve evidence of its experimental stage. The Cherokee Nation adopted it in 1825, and the bilingual Cherokee Phoenix used it in print in 1828. In the 21st century, the syllabary remains in teaching, public signs, and digital text. Cherokee is an Iroquoian language; some sign shapes reflect printing influences, but their values are Cherokee syllables.