Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) Adoption of The Syllabary
The Fox version of the syllabary was adapted by speakers of Ho-Chunk (also known as Winnebago) subsequent to an encounter in Nebraska in 1883-1884 with Fox speakers, who told them of other Fox speakers who were using a new writing system in order to write their own language. On a subsequent visit to Fox territory in Iowa in 1884, a Winnebago speaker learned to write in the syllabary. Period reports indicate rapid adoption of the syllabary by Winnebago speakers in Nebraska and Wisconsin. Winnebago phonology is significantly different from that of Fox-Sauk-Kickapoo and Potawatomi, with both more consonants and vowels, and the syllabary was adapted in order to accommodate some of these differences.
Anthropologist Paul Radin worked with Ho-Chunk speaker Sam Blowsnake to produce Crashing Thunder: The Autobiography of an American Indian. This autobiography was based upon handwritten material composed by Blowsnake in the syllabary. Use of the syllabary declined over time; when Radin visited Winnebago communities in 1912 he reported that it was known only to a small number of people.
Read more about this topic: Great Lakes Algonquian Syllabary
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