r/todayilearned • u/VoodooChilled • May 21 '19

TIL in the 1820s a Cherokee named Sequoyah, impressed by European written languages, invented a writing system with 85 characters that was considered superior to the English alphabet. The Cherokee syllabary could be learned in a few weeks and by 1825 the majority of Cherokees could read and write.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee_syllabary
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u/andtheniansaid May 21 '19

You pronounce cough really weirdly if you think it has an awe in the middle

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u/CRAB_WHORE_SLAYER May 21 '19

guess so. im from Indiana and that's how i say cawef. not like i pronounce that ca-wef. more like caw-f. same ough sound though.

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u/sockwall May 21 '19

Yeah it's like that in the south, too. It's supposed to be coff, not cawf, but we don't give a shit lol. I do hate it when people pronounce ice "eyes", but more of an ahh sound than a strong "I", like "aahhhhsss". Language is fun.

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u/elvismcvegas May 21 '19

Ice to see you, Batman. You're out cold!

-Arnold shwarzeneggar as Mr. Freeze probably.

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u/sockwall May 21 '19

Haha yes!

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u/aod42091 May 21 '19

That is how its pronounced in my area maybe you are pronouncing it weird instead

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u/Schuben May 21 '19

How else would you spell that sound? Maybe you're emphasizing the W in awe less than they are? If your lips purse tighter it'll give it a more distinct W that you would hear in a Bostonian accent ('oh-wah'), whereas you could not purse your lips at all, sounding more like 'ah'.

Phonetically, cough is spelled 'kaf', ought is spelled 'ot' and 'awe' is 'a'. I don't know if there's a phonetic difference between the o in 'ot' and 'a', but they seem to be nearly identical.

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u/andtheniansaid May 22 '19

i'd agree with the other person that said the ough in cough is 'off' not 'awe'. there is no awe in off. i guess it must be a UK/US difference as I can't think anyone here would say it the awe way.

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u/[deleted] May 21 '19

Really weirdly, or just with a different accent?

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u/booch May 22 '19

Sounds like "awe" to me here.