The Yugtun or Alaska script is a syllabary invented around the year 1900 by

Uyaquq Uyaquq (also Uyaquk or Uyakoq; sometimes referred to in English as Helper Neck) (ca. 1860–1924) was a member of the Yup'ik people who became a Helper in the Moravian Church, noted for his linguistic abilities. He went from being an illitera ...

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 as ...

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

pictogram A pictogram, also called a pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto, and in computer usage an icon, is a graphic symbol that conveys its meaning through its pictorial resemblance to a physical object. Pictographs are often used in writing and ...

s as a form of

proto-writing Proto-writing consists of visible marks communicating limited information. Such systems emerged from earlier traditions of symbol systems in the early Neolithic, as early as the 7th millennium BC in Eastern Europe and China. They used ideograp ...

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 or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and th ...

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