Which statement best gives the passage’s main idea?

Sequoyah created a syllabary that enabled Cherokee speakers to write their existing language. (The passage is specifically about Sequoyah creating a syllabary for the existing Cherokee language.)

Why did Sequoyah abandon one symbol for every word?

The Cherokee language had too many words for a separate symbol for every word. (The second paragraph says there were far too many words for a one-symbol-per-word system.)

What did the test with Sequoyah’s daughter show?

The writing could carry Cherokee words between people on its own. (Because they exchanged messages without hearing each other, the marks themselves had to carry the Cherokee words.)

A “syllabary” is a writing system whose characters represent

syllables in spoken words (The second paragraph defines a syllabary by contrasting syllables with the single letters of an alphabet.)

Sequoyah Creates a Cherokee Syllabary: Level 2 Reading Comprehension Questions

In the early 1800s, Cherokee people already spoke a rich language, but it did not yet have a widely used writing system. Sequoyah, a Cherokee silversmith, saw how English writing carried messages. He began searching for a way to represent Cherokee speech on a page.

At first, Sequoyah tried to make one symbol for each word. There were far too many words for that plan. He changed his method and made symbols for the syllables, or sound units, used in Cherokee. He completed a set of eighty-five characters. A syllabary is not an alphabet: its characters represent syllables rather than single letters.

Sequoyah tested the system with his daughter. They could exchange written messages even when they had not heard each other speak. The test showed that the marks carried Cherokee words.

The Cherokee Nation adopted the syllabary in 1825, and many Cherokee people learned it rapidly. In 1828, the Cherokee Phoenix newspaper began printing in both Cherokee and English. Sequoyah did not create the Cherokee language. He created a writing system that Cherokee speakers used to record and share their existing language.

Comprehension questions