The Yugtun or Alaska script is a

syllabary In the Linguistics, linguistic study of Written language, written languages, a syllabary is a set of grapheme, written symbols that represent the syllables or (more frequently) mora (linguistics), morae which make up words. A symbol in a syllaba ...

invented around the year 1900 by Uyaquq to write the

Central Alaskan Yup'ik language Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known a ...

. Uyaquq, who was monolingual in Yup'ik but had a son who was literate in English, initially used Indigenous

pictogram A pictogram (also pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto) is a graphical symbol that conveys meaning through its visual resemblance to a physical object. Pictograms are used in systems of writing and visual communication. A pictography is a wri ...

s as a form of

proto-writing Proto-writing consists of visible marks communication, communicating limited information. Such systems emerged from earlier traditions of symbol systems in the early Neolithic, as early as the 7th millennium BC in History of China, China a ...

that served as a mnemonic in preaching the Bible. However, when he realized that this did not allow him to reproduce the exact words of a passage the way the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...

did for English-speaking missionaries, he and his assistants developed it until it became a full syllabary.Ian James
"Yugtun script"
''Sky Knowledge'', April 2012 Although Uyaquq never learned English or the Latin alphabet, he was influenced by both. The syllable ''kut,'' for example, resembles the cursive form of the English word ''good.'' The Yup'ik language is now generally written in the Latin alphabet.

Bibliography

*Albertine Gaur, 2000. ''Literacy and the Politics of Writing'', * Alfred Schmitt, 1951. ''Die Alaska-Schrift und ihre schriftgeschichtliche Bedeutung'', Simons, Marburg * Alfred Schmitt, 1981. ''Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Schrift. Eine Schriftentwicklung um 1900 in Alaska'', Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden (Reprint der Ausgabe Leipzig 1940), **Vol. 1 ''Text,'' vol. 2. ''Abbildungen''

References

{{list of writing systems Syllabary writing systems Yupik languages Constructed scripts Writing systems of the Americas Writing systems introduced in 1900