| Yugtun | |
|---|---|
| Script type | Syllabary |
| Creator | Uyaquq |
Period | 1900 |
| Direction | Left-to-right  |
| Languages | Central Alaskan Yup'ik |
The Yugtun or Alaska script is a syllabary invented around the year 1900 by Uyaquq to write the Central Alaskan Yup'ik language. Uyaquq, who was monolingual in Yup'ik but had a son who was literate in English, [2] initially used Indigenous pictograms as a form of proto-writing 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 did for English-speaking missionaries, he and his assistants developed it until it became a full syllabary. [3] Although Uyaquq never learned English or the Latin alphabet, he was influenced by both. [2] 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. [2]