Do native Americans have a written language?

Answer 1

Yes, most of them do. I have a friend that lives in New Mexico and is part of a Native American Indian tribe. She speaks English but has a accent. Many of the Indians were born learning their tribal language and have learned English over the years.

Answer 2

Your question is in the present tense and the answer is that most native groups in North America use the English alphabet, or a modified form of English, to write their own languages. The Navajo, for example, produced a Navajo language newspaper (Ádahooníłígíí) in the 1940s and 1950s using modified English alphabet to represent the very unusual sounds found in Navajo.

The Cherokee leader Sequoyah devised a syllabary (not an alphabet) based on English letters in the 1820s; previously the Cherokee, like most North American native Groups, had no writing system. The Cherokee Phoenix (ᏣᎳᎩ ᏧᎴᎯᏌᏅᎯ) newspaper was published regularly from 1828 to 1934 using this syllabary - it his more recently been revived and is today published via the internet. This syllabary was heavily influenced and even inspired by the English alphabet, so it can not be considered purely native and indigenous.

Writing is defined as recording the sounds of a language. This excludes all the pictograms and mnemonics used throughout the Americas by native peoples, since they may record the sequence of ceremonies or songs, historic events, people and locations but they do not record language.

The only native American groups to develop genuine and indigenous writing and written languages before the influence of white Europeans were in Mexico Central America, where Aztecs, Mayas, Olmecs, Mixtecs, Zapotecs and others used glyphs to represent the sounds of their languages.

Answer 3

The term "native American" refers to all the original inhabitants of Canada, the USA, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, El Salvador, Brazil and all the many countries of South America. In total they spoke many thousands of languages, plus many different dialects of those languages - the number is huge.

An added complication is that Hawaii (not originally anything to do with the Americas) became one of the United States in 1959 - overnight its original native population became "native Americans" speaking another, totally unrelated, Polynesian language.

Many of these languages are now extinct and a few more are yet to be discovered among the remotest tribes of the Amazon and Peru.

It is estimated that there are more than 700 Native American languages still spoken today. Here is a partial list of languages native to North America (including creoles):

1. Abnaki, Eastern
2. Achumawi
3. Afro-Seminole Creole
4. Ahtena
5. Alabama
6. Aleut
7. Alsea
8. Angloromani
9. Apache, Jicarilla
10. Apache, Kiowa
11. Apache, Lipan
12. Apache, Mescalero-Chiricahua
13. Apache, Western
14. Arapaho
15. Arikara
16. Assiniboine
17. Atakapa
18. Atsugewi
19. Barbareño
20. Biloxi
21. Blackfoot
22. Caddo
23. Cahuilla
24. Carolina Algonquian
25. Carolinian
26. Catawba
27. Cayuga
28. Chamorro
29. Chehalis, Lower
30. Chehalis, Upper
31. Cherokee
32. Chetco
33. Cheyenne
34. Chickasaw
35. Chimariko
36. Chinook
37. Chinook Wawa
38. Chippewa
39. Chitimacha
40. Choctaw
41. Chumash
42. Clallam
43. Cocopa
44. Coeur d'Alene
45. Columbia-Wenatchi
46. Comanche
47. Coos
48. Coquille
49. Cowlitz
50. Cree, Plains
51. Crow
52. Cruzeño
53. Cupeño
54. Dakota
55. Degexit'an
56. Delaware
57. Delaware, Pidgin
58. Esselen
59. Evenki
60. Eyak
61. Galice
62. Gros Ventre
63. Gwich'in
64. Halkomelem
65. Han
66. Havasupai-Walapai-Yavapai
67. Hawai'i Creole English
68. Hawai'i Pidgin Sign Language
69. Hawaiian
70. Hidatsa
71. Ho-Chunk
72. Holikachuk
73. Hopi
74. Hupa
75. Ineseño
76. Inupiaq
77. Inupiatun, North Alaskan
78. Inupiatun, Northwest Alaska
79. Iowa-Oto
80. Jemez
81. Jingpho
82. Kalapuya
83. Kalispel-Pend D'oreille
84. Kansa
85. Karkin
86. Karok
87. Kashaya
88. Kato
89. Kawaiisu
90. Keres, Eastern
91. Keres, Western
92. Kickapoo
93. Kiowa
94. Kitsai
95. Klamath-Modoc
96. Koasati
97. Koyukon
98. Kumiai
99. Kuskokwim, Upper
100. Kutenai
101. Lakota
102. Luiseño
103. Lumbee
104. Lushootseed
105. Mahican
106. Maidu, Northeast
107. Maidu, Northwest
108. Maidu, Valley
109. Makah
110. Malecite-Passamaquoddy
111. Mandan
112. Mattole
113. Menominee
114. Meskwaki
115. Miami
116. Michif
117. Micmac
118. Mikasuki
119. Miwok, Bay
120. Miwok, Central Sierra
121. Miwok, Coast
122. Miwok, Lake
123. Miwok, Northern Sierra
124. Miwok, Plains
125. Miwok, Southern Sierra
126. Mohave
127. Mohawk
128. Mohegan-Montauk-Narragansett
129. Mokilese
130. Molale
131. Mono
132. Muskogee
133. Nanticoke
134. Natchez
135. Navajo
136. Nawathinehena
137. Nez Perce
138. Nisenan
139. Nooksack
140. Nottoway
141. Obispeño
142. Ofo
143. Ohlone, Northern
144. Ohlone, Southern
145. Okanagan
146. Omaha-Ponca
147. Oneida
148. Onondaga
149. Osage
150. Ottawa
151. Paiute, Northern
152. Pawnee
153. Piro
154. Piscataway
155. Plains Indian Sign Language
156. Pomo, Central
157. Pomo, Eastern
158. Pomo, Northeastern
159. Pomo, Northern
160. Pomo, Southeastern
161. Pomo, Southern
162. Potawatomi
163. Powhatan
164. Purepecha
165. Purisimeño
166. Quapaw
167. Quechan
168. Quileute
169. Quinault
170. Salinan
171. Salish, Southern Puget Sound
172. Salish, Straits
173. Sea Island Creole English
174. Seneca
175. Serrano
176. Shasta
177. Shawnee
178. Shoshoni
179. Siuslaw
180. Skagit
181. Snohomish
182. Spanish
183. Spokane
184. Takelma
185. Tanacross
186. Tanaina
187. Tanana, Lower
188. Tanana, Upper
189. Tenino
190. Tewa
191. Tillamook
192. Timbisha
193. Tiwa, Northern
194. Tiwa, Southern
195. Tlingit
196. Tohono O'odham
197. Tolowa
198. Tonkawa
199. Tsimshian
200. Tübatulabal
201. Tunica
202. Tuscarora
203. Tutelo
204. Tututni
205. Twana
206. Umatilla
207. Unami
208. Ute-Southern Paiute
209. Ventureño
210. Wailaki
211. Walla Walla
212. Wampanoag
213. Wappo
214. Wasco-Wishram
215. Washo
216. Wichita
217. Wintu
218. Wiyot
219. Wyandot
220. Yakima
221. Yaqui
222. Yokuts
223. Yuchi
224. Yuki
225. Yupik, Central
226. Yupik, Central Siberian
227. Yupik, Pacific Gulf
228. Yurok
229. Zuni