In his system, each symbol represents a syllable rather than a single phoneme; the 85 (originally 86)[1] characters provide a suitable method for writing Cherokee.

The letters resemble characters from other scripts, such as Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and Glagolitic, but are not used to represent the same sounds.

He worked on the syllabary for twelve years before completion and dropped or modified most of the characters he originally created.

After the syllabary was completed in the early 1820s, it achieved almost instantaneous popularity and spread rapidly throughout Cherokee society.

For example, when Albert Gallatin, a politician and trained linguist, saw a copy of Sequoyah's syllabary, he believed it was superior to the English alphabet in that literacy could be easily achieved for Cherokee at a time when only one-third of English-speaking people achieved the same goal.

The keyboard cover is now used by students in the Cherokee Nation Immersion School, where all coursework is written in syllabary.

[15] The syllabary is finding increasingly diverse usage today, from books, newspapers, and websites to the street signs of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and Cherokee, North Carolina.

This was at a time when American missionaries were working to use the Cherokee syllabary as a model for writing Liberian languages.

It is perhaps not coincidence that the "inscription on a house" that drew the world's attention to the existence of the Vai script was in fact on the home of Curtis, a Cherokee.

The charts below show the syllabary in recitation order, left to right, top to bottom as arranged by Samuel Worcester, along with his commonly used transliterations.

a [a] e [e] i [i] o [o] u [u̜] v [ə̃] ga [ka] ka [kʰa] ge [ke] gi [ki] go [ko] gu [ku̜] gv [kə̃] ha [ha] he [he] hi [hi] ho [ho] hu [hu̜] hv [hə̃] la [la] le [le] li [li] lo [lo] lu [lu̜] lv [lə̃] ma [ma] me [me] mi [mi] mo [mo] mu [mu̜] mv [mə̃] na [na] hna [n̥a] nah [nah] ne [ne] ni [ni] no [no] nu [nu̜] nv [nə̃] qua [kʷa] que [kʷe] qui [kʷi] quo [kʷo] quu [kʷu̜] quv [kʷə̃] s [s] sa [sa] se [se] si [si] so [so] su [su̜] sv [sə̃] da [ta] ta [tʰa] de [te] te [tʰe] di [ti] ti [tʰi] do [to] du [tu̜] dv [tə̃] dla [d͡ɮa] tla [t͡ɬa] tle [t͡ɬe] tli [t͡ɬi] tlo [t͡ɬo] tlu [t͡ɬu̜] tlv [t͡ɬə̃] tsa [t͡sa] tse [t͡se] tsi [t͡si] tso [t͡so] tsu [t͡su̜] tsv [t͡sə̃] wa [ɰa] we [ɰe] wi [ɰi] wo [ɰo] wu [ɰu̜] wv [ɰə̃] ya [ja] ye [je] yi [ji] yo [jo] yu [ju̜] yv [jə̃] Notes: The Cherokee character Ꮩ (do) has a different orientation in old documents, an upside-down letter V, flipped as compared to modern documents.

[27] Not all phonemic distinctions of the spoken language are represented: As with some other writing systems, proficient speakers can distinguish words by context.

Here are a few examples: ᎢiᏣtsaᎵliᏍsᎠaᏁneᏗdiᎢ Ꮳ Ꮅ Ꮝ Ꭰ Ꮑ Ꮧi tsa li s a ne diitsalisanediᎤuᎵliᎩgiᏳyuᏍsᎠaᏅnvᏁneᎤ Ꮅ Ꭹ Ᏻ Ꮝ Ꭰ Ꮕ Ꮑu li gi yu s a nv neuligiyusanvneᎤuᏂniᏰyeᏍsᎢiᏱyiᎤ Ꮒ Ᏸ Ꮝ Ꭲ Ᏹu ni ye s i yiuniyesiyiᎾnaᏍsᎢiᏯyaᎾ Ꮝ Ꭲ Ꮿna s i yanasiyaFor these examples, the back conversion is likely to join s-a as sa or s-i as si, as the consonant s can be written either with its own isolated glyph, or combined with a following vowel -- but the vowel itself doesn't require being attached to a consonant.

For example: If the Latin script is parsed from left to right, longest match first, then without special provisions, the back conversion would be wrong for the latter.

There are several similar examples involving these character combinations: nahe nahi naho nahu nahv.

The usual order for Cherokee runs across the rows of the syllabary chart from left to right, top to bottom—this is the one used in the Unicode block.

The fine arts degree program at Southwestern Community College incorporates the syllabary in its printmaking classes.

Typists would often set Cherokee with two different point sizes so as to mark beginnings of sentences and given names (as in the Latin alphabet).

A commercial font, Phoreus Cherokee, published by TypeCulture, includes multiple weights and styles.