The Original American Languages
Explore the fascinating world of Native American languages in this 28-minute video lecture by Professor John McWhorter. Discover how Sequoyah brought literacy to the Cherokee using a unique writing system based on the English alphabet. Learn about the spread of this system to Liberia and delve into the shared attributes of Iroquoian languages. Examine how prefixes reveal language families and investigate the unusual vocabulary of the Tanoan language Kiowa. Understand the impact of colonialism on early American languages, using the Gros Ventre language as an example. Explore the development of pidgins across colonial America and their role in communication with outsiders. Journey from the Finger Lakes region to northern New York, challenging conventional understanding of alphabets and language evolution.