At 16:25 -0400 2005-08-19, Peter T. Daniels wrote:

>Sequoyah's order for Cherokee is quite random
>(see WWS), likely reflecting the order he
>happened to invent the symbols in. The standard
>syllabary chart (does it go back to Samuel
>Worcester?) is simply in the order of the roman
>alphabet, consonants vertical, vowels horizontal.

I believe the ordering goes back to Worcester. I
very recently acquired an early Cherokee printing
which details the origin of the script (it's from
a journal of education); I will make this text
available soon.

That many Vai syllabary tables follow the order
of the Latin alphabet is an example of Western
laziness, I suppose. The section on ordering on
page 5 of the Vai proposal document details our
analysis of the script and why we preferred the
"vertical" arrangement as reflecting the real
structure of Mòmòlu Duwalu Bukèlè's script.
--
Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com