Vai syllabary

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Vai ꕙꔤ
Script type	Syllabary
Period	1830s–present
Languages	Vai, Gola
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Vaii (470), ​Vai
Unicode
Unicode alias	Vai
Unicode range	U+A500–U+A63F

Template:Alphabet The Vai syllabary is a syllabic writing system devised for the Vai language by Momolu Duwalu Bukele of Jondu, in what is now Grand Cape Mount County, Liberia. Bukele is regarded within the Vai community, as well as by most scholars, as the syllabary's inventor and chief promoter when it was first documented in the 1830s. It is one of the two most successful indigenous scripts in West Africa in terms of the number of current users and the availability of literature written in the script, the other being N'Ko.

Structure of the script

Vai is written from left to right, and is a syllabic script, i.e. each symbol represents one syllable. Each syllable consists of a consonant followed by a vowel. A final nasal is written with the same glyph as the Vai syllabic nasal. Originally there were separate glyphs for syllables ending in a nasal, such as don, with a long vowel, such as soo, with a diphthong, such as bai, as well as bili and sɛli. However, these have been dropped from the modern script.

The syllabary did not distinguish all the syllables of the Vai language until the 1960s when the University of Liberia added distinctions by modifying certain glyphs with dots or extra strokes to cover all CV syllables in use. There are relatively few glyphs for nasal vowels because only a few occur with each consonant.

The symbols used to write words evolved to become visually simpler over time, and an analysis has shown that they can do so over just a few generations.

History

Bukele is believed by most scholars to have devised the script some time in 1832 or 1833. Many accounts circulating among the Vai people say that he devised it after a mysterious stranger visited him in a dream - descriptions of the stranger vary, with one account describing him as "a tall, venerable looking white man" while others give different descriptions. In some versions, Bukele had no memory of the exact symbols the stranger had shown him but he and his friends were inspired to invent a script for themselves. An account in a manuscript by Bukele's cousin, called the Book of Rora, omits the dream story and simply relates that the script was devised one night by a group of Vai men as a challenge to the supposed cultural superiority of outsiders.

Possible link with Cherokee

In the 1960s scholars began suggesting that the Cherokee syllabary of North America may have provided a model for the design of the Vai syllabary in Liberia. The Vai syllabary emerged about 1832/33. This was at a time when American missionaries were working to use the Cherokee syllabary as a model for writing Liberian languages. Another link may have been Cherokee who emigrated to Liberia after the invention of the Cherokee syllabary (which in its early years spread rapidly among the Cherokee) but before the invention of the Vai syllabary. One such man, Cherokee Austin Curtis, married into a prominent Vai family and became an important Vai chief himself. The romantic "inscription on a house" that first drew the world's attention to the existence of the Vai script was in fact on the home of Curtis, a Cherokee.

What we can be reasonably sure about is that Curtis was not only a well-connected and influential man within the Vai community, but one who spoke the Vai language and adopted Vai customs, who settled in Vai country some four years before the invention of the Vai script, and who later appears to have welcomed the use of the script on his house. If Curtis was informed about the Cherokee script, if he was already resident at Cape Mount by 1827/28, and if he made contact with any of the mission party at Big Town - Revey or even his Vai-speaking assistants – it is conceivable that the notion of a syllabary reached the Vai by this route – but perhaps not very likely. Finally, whether the argument from coincidence should have any weight is difficult to say, but that two new scripts sharing the same basic structure, invented a continent apart within little more than a decade of each other, can each be linked, however tenuously (given the limited evidence), to the same individual, may reasonably be regarded as at least singular. (Tuchscherer and Hair 2002)

Possible earlier ancestry

A few researchers have put forward the theory that the Vai script is descended from a much earlier writing system. Although most 19th-century accounts have the Vai describing the writing system as recently invented, an 1899 account by Maurice Delafosse said that multiple Vai informants told him the writing system was invented in ancient times (Delafosse stated that he did not believe this). In 1936 the anthropologist Melville Jean Herskovits and his wife on a field trip to Suriname recorded "a specimen of writing written by a man while he was possessed by the spirit winti", and Mrs Kathleen Hau, who examined the specimen, wrote that "Most of the component parts of are to be found in the syllabaries of West Africa which we have just discussed", despite the fact that the export of African slaves to Suriname stopped long before the 1830s. For these and other reasons, the controversial Afrocentrist anthropologist and historian Dr Clyde Winters proposes that the Vai script is based on an ancient script used by the Mande peoples that he believes had previously been kept a secret by the Poro secret society.

Syllables

	e	i	a	o	u	ɔ	ɛ
‑	ꔀ	ꔤ	ꕉ	ꕱ	ꖕ	ꖺ	ꗡ
‑̃	ꔁ	ꔥ	ꕊ	ꕲ	ꖖ	ꖻ	ꗢ
ŋ‑̃			ꕋ			ꖼ	ꗣ
h‑	ꔂ	ꔦ	ꕌ	ꕳ	ꖗ	ꖽ	ꗤ
h‑̃		ꔧ	ꕍ		ꖘ	ꖾ	ꗥ
w‑	ꔃ	ꔨ	ꕎ	ꕴ	ꖙ	ꖿ	ꗦ
w‑̃	ꔄ	ꔩ	ꕏ	ꕵ	ꖚ	ꗀ	ꗧ
p‑	ꔅ	ꔪ	ꕐ	ꕶ	ꖛ	ꗁ	ꗨ
b‑	ꔆ	ꔫ	ꕑ	ꕷ	ꖜ	ꗂ	ꗩ
ɓ‑	ꔇ	ꔬ	ꕒ	ꕸ	ꖝ	ꗃ	ꗪ
mɓ‑	ꔈ	ꔭ	ꕓ	ꕹ	ꖞ	ꗄ	ꗫ
kp‑	ꔉ	ꔮ	ꕔ	ꕺ	ꖟ	ꗅ	ꗬ
kp‑̃			ꕕ				ꗭ
mgb‑	ꔊ	ꔯ	ꕖ	ꕻ	ꖠ	ꗆ	ꗮ
gb‑	ꔋ	ꔰ	ꕗ	ꕼ	ꖡ	ꗇ	ꗯ
gb‑̃						ꗈ	ꗰ
f‑	ꔌ	ꔱ	ꕘ	ꕽ	ꖢ	ꗉ	ꗱ
v‑	ꔍ	ꔲ	ꕙ	ꕾ	ꖣ	ꗊ	ꗲ
t‑	ꔎ	ꔳ	ꕚ	ꕿ	ꖤ	ꗋ	ꗳ
θ‑	ꔏ	ꔴ	ꕛ	ꖀ	ꖥ	ꗌ	ꗴ
d‑	ꔐ	ꔵ	ꕜ	ꖁ	ꖦ	ꗍ	ꗵ
ð‑	ꔑ	ꔶ	ꕝ	ꖂ	ꖧ	ꗎ	ꗶ
l‑	ꔒ	ꔷ	ꕞ	ꖃ	ꖨ	ꗏ	ꗷ
r‑	ꔓ	ꔸ	ꕟ	ꖄ	ꖩ	ꗐ	ꗸ
ɗ‑	ꔔ	ꔹ	ꕠ	ꖅ	ꖪ	ꗑ	ꗹ
nɗ‑	ꔕ	ꔺ	ꕡ	ꖆ	ꖫ	ꗒ	ꗺ
s‑	ꔖ	ꔻ	ꕢ	ꖇ	ꖬ	ꗓ	ꗻ
ʃ‑	ꔗ	ꔼ	ꕣ	ꖈ	ꖭ	ꗔ	ꗼ
z‑	ꔘ	ꔽ	ꕤ	ꖉ	ꖮ	ꗕ	ꗽ
ʒ‑	ꔙ	ꔾ	ꕥ	ꖊ	ꖯ	ꗖ	ꗾ
tʃ‑	ꔚ	ꔿ	ꕦ	ꖋ	ꖰ	ꗗ	ꗿ
dʒ‑	ꔛ	ꕀ	ꕧ	ꖌ	ꖱ	ꗘ	ꘀ
ndʒ‑	ꔜ	ꕁ	ꕨ	ꖍ	ꖲ	ꗙ	ꘁ
j‑	ꔝ	ꕂ	ꕩ	ꖎ	ꖳ	ꗚ	ꘂ
k‑	ꔞ	ꕃ	ꕪ	ꖏ	ꖴ	ꗛ	ꘃ
k‑̃			ꕫ
ŋg‑	ꔟ	ꕄ	ꕬ	ꖐ	ꖵ	ꗜ	ꘄ
ŋg‑̃							ꘅ
g‑	ꔠ	ꕅ	ꕭ	ꖑ	ꖶ	ꗝ	ꘆ
g‑̃							ꘇ
m‑	ꔡ	ꕆ	ꕮ	ꖒ	ꖷ	ꗞ	ꘈ
n‑	ꔢ	ꕇ	ꕯ	ꖓ	ꖸ	ꗟ	ꘉ
ɲ‑	ꔣ	ꕈ	ꕰ	ꖔ	ꖹ	ꗠ	ꘊ
	e	i	a	o	u	ɔ	ɛ

Additional syllables

Symbol	Function
ꘋ	Syllable final ŋ
ꘌ	Syllable vowel lengthener (to optionally indicate a long vowel). A long vowel may also be indicated by following the syllable with a syllable of the same vowel starting with h.

Punctuation

Vai has distinct basic punctuation marks:

Mark	Function
꘍	comma (,)
꘎	period (.)
꘎꘎	exclamation mark (!)
꘏	question mark (?)

Additional punctuation marks are taken from European usage.

Historical symbols

Logograms

The oldest Vai texts used various logograms (symbols representing a complete word). Of these, only ꘓ and ꘘ are still in use.

Logogram	Pronunciation	Syllabary	Meaning
ꘓ	feŋ	ꔌꘋ	thing
ꘔ	keŋ	ꔞꘋ	foot
ꘕ	tiŋ	ꔳꘋ	island
ꘖ	nii; kpɛ kɔwu	ꕇꔦ; ꗬ ꗛꖙ	cow; case of gin
ꘗ	ɓaŋ	ꕒꘋ	finished
ꘘ	faa	ꕘꕌ	die, kill
ꘙ	taa	ꕚꕌ	go, carry, journey
ꘚ	ɗaŋ	ꕠꘋ	hear, understand
ꘛ	ɗoŋ	ꖅꘋ	enter
ꘜ	kuŋ	ꖴꘋ	head, be able to
ꘝ	tɔŋ	ꗋꘋ	be named
ꘞ	ɗɔɔ	ꗑꖽ	be small
ꘟ	dʒɔŋ	ꗘꘋ	slave
ꔔ	ɗeŋ	ꔔꘋ	child, small
ꕪ*	kai	ꕪꔦ	man
ꗑ	lɔ	ꗏ	in

• Modern <ka>; at the time now-obsolete ꘑ was used for <ka>.

Digits

Vai uses Arabic numerals (0–9). In the 1920s Vai-specific digits were developed but never adopted:

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
꘠	꘡	꘢	꘣	꘤	꘥	꘦	꘧	꘨	꘩

Book of Rora

One of Momolu Duwalu Bukele's cousins, Kaali Bala Ndole Wano, wrote a long manuscript around 1845 called the Book of Ndole or Book of Rora under the pen name Rora. This roughly fifty page manuscript contains several now obsolete symbols:

obsolete symbols	ꘐ	ꘑ	ꘒ	ꘪ	ꘫ
modern equivalents	ꕘ	ꕪ	ꖇ	ꕮ	ꗑ

Unicode

The Vai syllabary was added to the Unicode Standard in April, 2008 with the release of version 5.1.

In Windows 7 and earlier, since this version only gives names for characters released in Unicode 5.0 and earlier, the names will either be blank (Microsoft Word applications) or "Undefined" (Character Map).

The Unicode block for Vai is U+A500–U+A63F. Code points in this block are contiguous without the gaps shown in the "Syllables" table above.

Further reading

• Everson, Michael; Charles Riley; José Rivera (1 August 2005). "Proposal to add the Vai script to the BMP of the UCS" (PDF). Working Group Document. International Organization for Standardization.
• Fatima Massaquoi-Fahnbulleh. 1963. "The Seminar on the Standardization of the Vai script," in University of Liberia Journal Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 15–37.
• "Vai syllabary". Omniglot. Retrieved 16 June 2010.
• Kelly, Piers, James Winters, Helena Miton, and Olivier Morin. "The predictable evolution of letter shapes: An emergent script of West Africa recapitulates historical change in writing systems." Current Anthropology 62, no. 6 (2021). [on simplifications over time for Vai symbols]
• Tuchscherer, Konrad. 2005. "History of Writing in Africa." In Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience (second edition), ed. by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., pp. 476–480. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Tuchscherer, Konrad. 2002 (with P.E.H. Hair). "Cherokee and West Africa: Examining the Origins of the Vai Script," History in Africa, 29, pp. 427–486.
• Tuchscherer, Konrad. 2001. "The Vai Script," in Liberia: Africa's First Republic (Footsteps magazine). Petersborough, NH: Cobblestone Press.
• Tykhostup, Olena and Piers Kelly. 2017. "A diachronic comparison of the Vai script of Liberia (1834–2005)." Journal of Open Humanities Data 4:2. Template:Doi.

External links

• Ethnologue on Vai
• Scripts of Africa
• Input tool and Unicode font for using Vai on Windows XP
• SIL on Vai
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