Version 1.0.1, 9 September 2021
Version history:
Version 1.0, 1 November 2010
Version 1.0.1, 9 September 2021
The Cherokee writing system
The Cherokee (Tsalagi, ᏣᎳᎩ) writing system is a syllabary, invented in the early nineteenth century by Sequoyah (ᏍᏏᏉᏯ). The character shapes are mainly derived from the Latin alphabet, but there is no phonetic correspondence between the two.
Fluctuations in character shapes
In existing fonts, there is some fluctuation in character shapes. The character at U+13D9 (Ꮩ) often looks like a V, but it is sometimes found the other way up, like a Greek Λ, notably in the Plantagenet Cherokee font versions bundled with MS Windows Vista and 7, and Mac OS X v.10.5.x and 10.6.x. Plantagenet Cherokee's designer, Ross Mills of Tiro Typeworks, wrote on Friday, October 29, 2010: “The lambda shaped character was the original shape in the first versions of the 19th century Cherokee font. It was changed for the second version (of the original metal type) because it was thought to be confusing with the other ‘A’ shaped characters, and so was flipped to become a ‘V’ shape. The version of Plantagenet Cherokee that comes with Windows at some point in its build process lost the alternate and the older form became the encoded form, rather than an alternate. In Tiro versions of Plantagenet Cherokee and Huronia, the ‘V’ shape is the default and the Lambda shape is an alternate of that. There are still some who prefer the Lambda shape, but I think you could say the general expectation is a ‘V’ shape—although there are some expectations with Cherokee that are decidedly un-typographically sound, given the preponderance of distressed, badly drawn fonts released with the notion they are somehow more ‘authentic’.” And in another communication on the same day: “Regarding the other characters, I would count these as being stylistic derivations. With many characters, those interpreting the forms falsely interpreted what were actually printing errors/inconsistencies as actual anatomical features; so where ink dropped out (or there was a broken sort) led to instances of incomplete loops and the like. I should mention that while I have researched and referenced many sources in establishing my design, and that I think it structurally closer to the original design, I as a type designer have little interest in maintaining what I think are unintentional idiosyncrasies just for the sake of some false sense of authenticity. As such, I can't guarantee that all readers of Cherokee will approve of my decisions, as they may be used to an entirely different paradigm (vis. the 'official' Cherokee nation font). Plantagenet is also a multi-script design, so there were other decisions made and features present that relate to other components of the font.” Version 2 of the Plantagenet Cherokee font will have the ‘V’ shape at U+13D9 as the default.
Fonts
On Windows 10 and on macOS 10.x and 11.x, the font Plantagenet Cherokee is available. This version has by default the ‘V’-shaped glyph at U+13D9, although in the version packed with Windows, the Lambda shape is available as glyph variant (in apps such as InDesign, but not in MS Office applications).
Plantagenet Cherokee font sizes:
main text: xxpt [TBA]
block quotes: yypt [TBA]
footnote text, bibliographies, indexes: zzpt [TBA]
Windows and Mac OS X
Windows fonts, as long as they are TrueType fonts (.ttf) or TrueType Collections (.ttc) can also be used on Mac OS X.
