Vai script summary

Sample

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ꕢꕎꕌ ꔖꔜꕯꕊ (1) ꕉꕜꕮ ꔔꘋ ꖸ ꔰ ꗋꘋ ꕮꕨ ꔔꘋ ꖸ ꕎ ꕉꖸꕊ ꕴꖃ ꕃꔤꘂ ꗱ, ꕉꖷ ꗪꗡ ꔻꔤ ꗏꗒꗡ ꕎ ꗪ ꕉꖸꕊ ꖏꕎ. ꕉꕡ ꖏ ꗳꕮꕊ ꗏ ꕪ ꗓ ꕉꖷ ꕉꖸ ꕘꕞ ꗪ. ꖏꖷ ꕉꖸꔧ ꖏ ꖸ ꕚꕌꘂ ꗷꔤ ꕞ ꘃꖷ ꘉꔧ ꗠꖻ ꕞ ꖴꘋ ꔳꕩ ꕉꖸ ꗳ.

ꕢꕎꕌ ꗱꕞꕯꕊ (2) ꗞ ꗏꗒ ꔰ ꕚ ꖷ ꗋꖺꕒꕌ ꖸ ꔰ ꕞ ꕺꖃ ꘈꗢ ꗏ ꗷꔤ ꕞ ꘃꖷ ꗞ ꗏ ꗓꖺ ꔰ ꔇꔀ ꕉ ꕮ, ꕉꔤ ꔳ ꗞ ꔱꔤꕮ ꖏ ꖺ ꗞ ꗬꔤꕮ ꖺ ꗞ ꕺꖃ ꕮꔧ ꕮꔕ, ꕉꔤ ꔳ ꖷꖬ ꖏ ꖺ ꕪꔤ, ꕉꔤ ꕢ ꔽꔤ ꕮ ꖺ ꔵꘉ, ꖺ ꕐꕌꔳ, ꖺ ꖏ ꘀꗫ ꕃꔤ ꖺ ꗞꗢ ꗃꕎ ꕸꖃ ꖷ ꗏ ꖺ ꗞ ꖷ ꖸ ꗏ, ꕉꔤ ꔳ ꔻꔤ ꗞꖻ ꖏ ꖺ ꔌꘋ ꕴꕱ ꗞꖻ, ꕉꔤ ꕢ ꕴꖃ ꕃꔤ ꕮ ꔧ ꖏ ꕮꔕ ꗷꔤ ꔰ. ꕉꔤ ꕒꕢ ꕉ ꔫꔤ ꕞ, ꗞ ꕮ ꗞ ꖸ ꗏ ꗓꖺ ꕮꕨ ꔻꔤ ꖏ ꗱ, ꖺ ꕢꕎꕌ ꖏ ꖴꕮ ꖺ ꗷꔤ ꖷ ꖦꖕꕰꕊ ꗪ ꗞꗢ ꕞ ꕴꖃ ꕸꖃꔀ ꗱ ꗡꕯ, ꖺ ꕐꕌꔳ ꖷ ꗏ ꗞꗢ ꗃꕎ, ꕉꔤ ꔳ ꕸꖃ ꖴꘋ ꖏ, ꔧ ꗨꗡ ꕉꕌ ꕸꖃꔀ ꗪ ꕸꖃ ꕮꔕ ꗛꖺ, ꔧ ꗨꗡ ꕉꕌ ꕸꖃꔀ ꗪ ꖴꗷ ꕢꕮ ꕒꕩ ꗏ ꖺ ꗷꔤ ꕮꔕ ꔰ ꕞ.

Usage & history

The Vai language, also called Vy or Gallinas, is a Mande language spoken by the Vai people, numbering roughly 189,000 in Liberia, and around 208,800 in total, including Sierra Leone.esf

The Vai script is used by speakers of the Vai language in coastal areas of western Liberia and eastern Sierra Leone. It is learned informally, and most speakers only use a subset of the syllabic repertoire. There is a market for Vai literature, and it is widely used by traders, as well as for newspapers, tombstones and in traditional rituals; the Bible Society in Liberia and the Institute of Libreian languages also publish in Vaierr.

ꕙꔤ vai Vai

There are different theories about the origin of the Vai script. One is that Mɔmɔlu Duwalu Bukɛlɛ dreamt of the symbols after encountering writing on a Portuguese ship in the 1830s, and wrote them down after waking. Another has that it drew inspiration from the Cherokee syllabary, after an number of them migrated to West Africa in the early 1800s. By 1899 most Vai were said to be literate in the script.

The script was standardised after work by Momolu Massaquoi at the University of Liberia and August Klingenheben in the early 1960s.

Sources & further reading: Unicode • Scriptsource • Everson, Riley, & Rivera.

Basic features

The Vai script is a moraic syllabary, ie. each symbol typically represents both a consonant and a vowel, but 2 symbols are used for syllables with long vowels or syllables ending with a nasal. See the table to the right for a brief overview of features for the modern Vai orthography.

Vai runs left to right in horizontal lines.

Words are separated by spaces.

There are around 270 syllables, each represented by unique characters. Although some glyphs representing a common place of articulation are related, there is no referable derivation of form or predictable application of diacritics.s

Many people literate in the script find around 50 characters sufficient for most of their needs.s

The language is tonal, but the tones are not written.

Vowels can be lengthened using a special symbol, or by following the vowel with as syllable beginning with h- (which creates ambiguity).

Older texts used several logograms, 2 of which are still in use, but infrequently.

ASCII digits are used. A set of Vai digits were proposed but never used.

Some Vai-specific punctuation exists, but ASCII punctuation is also used.

By default, lines are broken at word boundaries.

Character index

Letters

Show

CV syllables

ꔪ␣ꖛ␣ꔅ␣ꕶ␣ꗨ␣ꗁ␣ꕐ␣ꔫ␣ꖜ␣ꔆ␣ꕷ␣ꗩ␣ꗂ␣ꕑ␣ꔰ␣ꖡ␣ꔋ␣ꕼ␣ꗯ␣ꗰ␣ꗇ␣ꗈ␣ꕗ␣ꔊ␣ꕻ␣ꗮ␣ꗆ␣ꕖ␣ꔬ␣ꖝ␣ꔇ␣ꕸ␣ꗪ␣ꗃ␣ꕒ␣ꔭ␣ꖞ␣ꔈ␣ꕹ␣ꗫ␣ꗄ␣ꕓ␣ꔳ␣ꖤ␣ꔎ␣ꕿ␣ꗳ␣ꗋ␣ꕚ␣ꔵ␣ꖦ␣ꔐ␣ꖁ␣ꗵ␣ꗍ␣ꕜ␣ꔹ␣ꖪ␣ꔔ␣ꖅ␣ꗹ␣ꗑ␣ꕠ␣ꔺ␣ꖫ␣ꔕ␣ꖆ␣ꗺ␣ꗒ␣ꕡ␣ꕃ␣ꖴ␣ꔞ␣ꖏ␣ꘃ␣ꗛ␣ꕪ␣ꔮ␣ꖟ␣ꔉ␣ꕺ␣ꗬ␣ꗭ␣ꗅ␣ꕔ␣ꕕ␣ꕅ␣ꖶ␣ꔠ␣ꖑ␣ꘆ␣ꘇ␣ꗝ␣ꕭ␣ꕄ␣ꔟ␣ꖐ␣ꘄ␣ꘅ␣ꖵ␣ꗜ␣ꕬ␣ꔿ␣ꖰ␣ꔚ␣ꖋ␣ꗿ␣ꗗ␣ꕦ␣ꕀ␣ꖱ␣ꔛ␣ꖌ␣ꘀ␣ꗘ␣ꕧ␣ꕁ␣ꖲ␣ꔜ␣ꖍ␣ꘁ␣ꗙ␣ꕨ␣ꔱ␣ꖢ␣ꔌ␣ꕽ␣ꗱ␣ꗉ␣ꕘ␣ꔲ␣ꖣ␣ꔍ␣ꕾ␣ꗲ␣ꗊ␣ꕙ␣ꔻ␣ꖬ␣ꔖ␣ꖇ␣ꗻ␣ꗓ␣ꕢ␣ꔽ␣ꖮ␣ꔘ␣ꖉ␣ꗽ␣ꗕ␣ꕤ␣ꔦ␣ꔧ␣ꖗ␣ꖘ␣ꔂ␣ꕳ␣ꗤ␣ꗥ␣ꖽ␣ꖾ␣ꕌ␣ꕍ␣ꕆ␣ꖷ␣ꘈ␣ꗞ␣ꕮ␣ꕇ␣ꖸ␣ꘉ␣ꗟ␣ꕯ␣ꖹ␣ꗠ␣ꘊ␣ꕰ␣ꕈ␣ꗣ␣ꖼ␣ꕋ␣ꔨ␣ꔩ␣ꖙ␣ꔃ␣ꕴ␣ꗦ␣ꗧ␣ꖿ␣ꕎ␣ꕏ␣ꔸ␣ꖩ␣ꔓ␣ꖄ␣ꗸ␣ꗐ␣ꕟ␣ꔷ␣ꖨ␣ꔒ␣ꖃ␣ꗷ␣ꗏ␣ꕞ␣ꕂ␣ꖳ␣ꔝ␣ꖎ␣ꘂ␣ꗚ␣ꕩ

ꕫ␣ꔴ␣ꖥ␣ꔏ␣ꗴ␣ꗌ␣ꕛ␣ꔶ␣ꖧ␣ꔑ␣ꖂ␣ꗶ␣ꗎ␣ꕝ␣ꔼ␣ꖭ␣ꔗ␣ꖈ␣ꗼ␣ꗔ␣ꕣ␣ꔾ␣ꖯ␣ꔙ␣ꖊ␣ꗾ␣ꗖ␣ꕥ␣ꔡ␣ꖒ␣ꔢ␣ꖓ␣ꔣ␣ꖔ␣ꔯ␣ꖠ␣ꖚ␣ꔄ␣ꕵ␣ꗀ

Vowels

ꔤ␣ꖕ␣ꔀ␣ꕱ␣ꗡ␣ꗢ␣ꖺ␣ꖻ␣ꕉ␣ꕊ

ꔥ␣ꖖ␣ꔁ␣ꕲ

Logograms

ꘓ␣ꘘ

Other

ꘋ␣ꘌ

Not used for Vai

ꘐ␣ꘑ␣ꘒ␣ꘪ␣ꘫ␣ꘔ␣ꘕ␣ꘖ␣ꘗ␣ꘙ␣ꘚ␣ꘛ␣ꘜ␣ꘝ␣ꘞ␣ꘟ

Punctuation

Show

꘍␣꘎␣꘏

ASCII

(␣)␣,␣.␣?␣!

Phonology

These are sounds for the Vai language.

Click on the sounds to reveal locations in this document where they are mentioned.

Phones in a lighter colour are non-native or allophones. Source Wikipedia.

Vowel sounds

Observation: Rovenchak et al. say that ĩ and ũ are each represented by a single syllabic sign and of dubious relevance, and that some papers on Vai omit themrmr,2. However, the following syllabic signs are allocated to those sounds:

ꔧ␣ꕆ␣ꕇ␣ꕈ␣ꔩ␣ꖘ␣ꖷ␣ꖸ␣ꖹ␣ꖚ

Consonant sounds

	labial	alveolar	post- alveolar	palatal	velar	glottal
plosive	p b k͡p ɡ͡b	t d			k ɡ
implosive	ɓ	ɗ
affricate			t͡ʃ d͡ʒ
prenasalised	ᵐɓ ᵐɡ͡b	ⁿɗ	ᶮd͡ʒ		ᵑɡ
fricative	f v	s z	ʃ ʒ			h
nasal	m	n		ɲ	ŋ
approximant	w	l		j
trill/flap		r

Some sources use c and ɟ rather than d͡ʒ and t͡ʃ. Welmers describes these sounds as 'best described as' voiced palatal stops because there is very little affrication in their releasew,5.

He also reports that some people pronounce initial l as ɗ.w,5

w before on of i e ɛ is rare, and tends towards ʋw,5.

Observation: Sounds not listed in the sources but for which there are syllabic characters include ᵐɓ ⁿɗ.

Tones

Vai has 4 tones, 2 level and 2 contoured. They are:

˦	́	high
˨	̀̀	low
˦˨	̂	falling
˨˦	̌	rising

Tones are not marked in the Vai orthography, although this doesn't often create ambiguityd,596. They do, however, tend to be marked using the accent marks in transcriptions.

Alphabet

The syllable set for Vai can be ordered in various ways. That used for the Unicode Standard orders syllables by vowel first, then by consonanterr. The order corresponds to following columns from top to bottom, with lines progressing from left to right, in the table layout shown below. That ordering tends to bring together shapes that are similar in appearance.

In a few cases there are extra lines for syllables that end with nasalisation (indicated by ˜).

	e	i	a	o	u	ɔ	ɛ
	ꔀ	ꔤ	ꕉ	ꕱ	ꖕ	ꖺ	ꗡ
˜	ꔁ	ꔥ	ꕊ	ꕲ	ꖖ	ꖻ	ꗢ
ŋ			ꕋ			ꖼ	ɡ
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
mɡb	ꔊ	ꔯ	ꕖ	ꕻ	ꖠ	ꗆ	ɡ
ɡb	ꔋ	ꔰ	ꕗ	ꕼ	ꖡ	ꗇ	ꗯ
ɡb˜						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
ʧ	ꔚ	ꔿ	ꕦ	ꖋ	ꖰ	ꗗ	ꗿ
ʤ	ꔛ	ꕀ	ꕧ	ꖌ	ꖱ	ꗘ	ꘀ
nʤ	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
ŋɡ	ꔟ	ꕄ	ꕬ	ꖐ	ꖵ	ꗜ	ꘄ
ŋɡ˜							ꘅ
ɡ	ꔠ	ꕅ	ꕭ	ꖑ	ꖶ	ꗝ	ꘆ
ɡ˜							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

Syllables

Vai syllables are typically displayed as a table (see alphabet). Here we follow our usual practice of ordering symbols by sound.

Vowel syllables

The following represent sounds for standalone vowels.

ꔤ␣ꖕ␣ꔀ␣ꕱ␣ꗡ␣ꖺ␣ꕉ

ꔥ␣ꖖ␣ꔁ␣ꕲ␣ꗢ␣ꖻ␣ꕊ

The four nasalised characters marked as infrequent enable the representation of foreign vowel sounds, such as in personal names, in other languages of Liberia such as Loma, which has all six vowels ẽ ĩ ã õ ũ ɔ̃ ɛ̃, Kpelle (the largest language group in Liberia) and Mende, which each have five vowels: ẽ ĩ ã ũ ɔ̃ ɛ̃. They do not naturally exist in Vai, and local people will find it difficult to pronounce themenrs.

These standalone vowels are commonly used for word-initial standalones: apart from loan words, this essentially means interjections, conjunctions, and especially pronouns.d,594 They may also be used for diphthongs, although not always (see also vowelextension).

Consonant-vowel syllables

The core of the script is a set of CV syllables, however the set shown here includes symbols that were added to support the sounds of other languages, or to fill gaps. Not all the symbols will be used, or even recognised, by all native Vai readerserr.

Jump to: Plosives • Implosives • Affricates • Prenasalised • Fricatives • Nasals • Other sonorants

Plosives

ꔪ␣ꖛ␣ꔅ␣ꕶ␣ꗨ␣ꗁ␣ꕐ

ꔫ␣ꖜ␣ꔆ␣ꕷ␣ꗩ␣ꗂ␣ꕑ

ꔰ␣ꖡ␣ꔋ␣ꕼ␣ꗯ␣ꗇ␣ꕗ␣ ␣ꗰ␣ꗈ

ꔳ␣ꖤ␣ꔎ␣ꕿ␣ꗳ␣ꗋ␣ꕚ

ꔵ␣ꖦ␣ꔐ␣ꖁ␣ꗵ␣ꗍ␣ꕜ

ꕃ␣ꖴ␣ꔞ␣ꖏ␣ꘃ␣ꗛ␣ꕪ␣ ␣ꕫ

ꔮ␣ꖟ␣ꔉ␣ꕺ␣ꗬ␣ꗅ␣ꕔ␣ ␣ꗭ␣ꕕ

ꕅ␣ꖶ␣ꔠ␣ꖑ␣ꘆ␣ꗝ␣ꕭ␣ ␣ꘇ

Implosives

ꔬ␣ꖝ␣ꔇ␣ꕸ␣ꗪ␣ꗃ␣ꕒ

ꔹ␣ꖪ␣ꔔ␣ꖅ␣ꗹ␣ꗑ␣ꕠ

Affricates

ꔿ␣ꖰ␣ꔚ␣ꖋ␣ꗿ␣ꗗ␣ꕦ

ꕀ␣ꖱ␣ꔛ␣ꖌ␣ꘀ␣ꗘ␣ꕧ

Prenasalised

ꔭ␣ꖞ␣ꔈ␣ꕹ␣ꗫ␣ꗄ␣ꕓ

ꔯ␣ꖠ␣ꔊ␣ꕻ␣ꗮ␣ꗆ␣ꕖ

ꔺ␣ꖫ␣ꔕ␣ꖆ␣ꗺ␣ꗒ␣ꕡ

ꕄ␣ꔟ␣ꖐ␣ꘄ␣ꘅ␣ꖵ␣ꗜ␣ꕬ

ꕁ␣ꖲ␣ꔜ␣ꖍ␣ꘁ␣ꗙ␣ꕨ

Fricatives

ꔱ␣ꖢ␣ꔌ␣ꕽ␣ꗱ␣ꗉ␣ꕘ

ꔲ␣ꖣ␣ꔍ␣ꕾ␣ꗲ␣ꗊ␣ꕙ

ꔴ␣ꖥ␣ꔏ␣ꖀ␣ꗴ␣ꗌ␣ꕛ

ꔶ␣ꔑ␣ꖧ␣ꖂ␣ꗶ␣ꗎ␣ꕝ

ꔻ␣ꖬ␣ꔖ␣ꖇ␣ꗻ␣ꗓ␣ꕢ

ꔽ␣ꖮ␣ꔘ␣ꖉ␣ꗽ␣ꗕ␣ꕤ

ꔼ␣ꖭ␣ꔗ␣ꖈ␣ꗼ␣ꗔ␣ꕣ

ꔾ␣ꖯ␣ꔙ␣ꖊ␣ꗾ␣ꗖ␣ꕥ

ꔦ␣ꖗ␣ꔂ␣ꕳ␣ꗤ␣ꖽ␣ꕌ␣ ␣ꔧ␣ꖘ␣ꗥ␣ꖾ␣ꕍ

Nasals

ꕆ␣ꖷ␣ꔡ␣ꖒ␣ꘈ␣ꗞ␣ꕮ

ꕇ␣ꖸ␣ꔢ␣ꖓ␣ꘉ␣ꗟ␣ꕯ

ꖹ␣ꔣ␣ꖔ␣ꗠ␣ꘊ␣ꕰ

ꕈ␣ꗣ␣ꖼ␣ꕋ

The consonant ŋ between like vowels has largely disappeared from spoken Vai, leaving nasalised vowels instead, but words continue to be written using the nasal syllabled,596, eg. ꕪꕋ

Other sonorants

ꔨ␣ꖙ␣ꔃ␣ꕴ␣ꗦ␣ꖿ␣ꕎ␣ ␣ꔩ␣ꖚ␣ꔄ␣ꕵ␣ꗧ␣ꗀ␣ꕏ

ꔸ␣ꖩ␣ꔓ␣ꖄ␣ꗸ␣ꗐ␣ꕟ

ꔷ␣ꖨ␣ꔒ␣ꖃ␣ꗷ␣ꗏ␣ꕞ

ꕂ␣ꖳ␣ꔝ␣ꖎ␣ꘂ␣ꗚ␣ꕩ

Phonological change in Vai tends to drop the 'l' sound when word-medial, creating a long vowel, although this depends on geography to an extent, eg. the word for 'moon' can be appear as any of the following: ꕪꖃ ꕪꕴ ꕪꕱ

Final consonants & syllabic nasal

ꘋ

ꘋ [U+A60B VAI SYLLABLE NG] usually represents the syllable-final nasal, which is the only syllable-final consonant in Vai (and iis regarded as a mora), eg. ꔖꘋ

Due to assimilation processes, the syllable-final nasal is not always pronounced as a velar nasal, but is affected by the following consonant. It is, however, always written in the same wayd,594.

It is also used as a syllable to represent the first-person singular ꘋ

Long vowels & diphthongs

The most common way to indicate a long vowel is to follow the vowel with a syllable with that begins with h and echoes the same soundws, eg. the following word is written using symbols for ta and ha: ꕚꕌ

Because it introduces ambiguity, texts using this approach are difficult to automatically convert from a Latin transcription to Vai characters.

A word containing a standalone vowel that doesn't appear at the beginning will commonly also use a CV letter. For example, syllable beginning with w is used, for the followingd,594, eg. ꕞꖏꕎ

ꘌ

ꘌ [U+A60C VAI SYLLABLE LENGTHENER] may be used to indicate that the vowel in the preceding syllable character is lengthened, eg. ꕚꘌ

Historical syllables

From Wikipedia: "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"ws

ꘐ␣ꘑ␣ꘒ␣ꘪ␣ꘫ

"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."ws

Punctuation & inline features

Word boundaries

The concept of 'word' is difficult to define in any language (see What is a word?). Here, a word is a vaguely-defined, but recognisable semantic unit that is typically smaller than a phrase and may comprise one or more syllables.

In modern printed Vai, spaces commonly appear around words.

There is, however, another tradition where Vai is written without inter-word spacing, although Vai literates report that this makes it harder to read Vai than to write it, although Singler reports that script conventions and distributional patterns help a littled,596.

Phrase & section boundaries

,␣꘍␣:␣;␣.␣꘎␣?␣꘏␣!␣꘎꘎␣—

Vai uses ASCII punctuation, but also has a few distinct punctuation marks of its own. The choice of which to use is down to the author's preference, although the Vai question mark is quite rare.err,2

phrase	, [U+002C COMMA] ꘍ [U+A60D VAI COMMA]
sentence	. [U+002E FULL STOP] ꘎ [U+A60E VAI FULL STOP] ? [U+003F QUESTION MARK] ꘏ [U+A60F VAI QUESTION MARK] ! [U+0021 EXCLAMATION MARK] ꘎꘎ [U+A60E VAI FULL STOP + U+A60E VAI FULL STOP]

phrase

, [U+002C COMMA]

꘍ [U+A60D VAI COMMA]

sentence

. [U+002E FULL STOP]

꘎ [U+A60E VAI FULL STOP]

? [U+003F QUESTION MARK]

꘏ [U+A60F VAI QUESTION MARK]

! [U+0021 EXCLAMATION MARK]

꘎꘎ [U+A60E VAI FULL STOP + U+A60E VAI FULL STOP]

Singler reports that some writers use ꔂ (hé) to end sentences, rather than a punctuation mark.

Bracketed text

(␣)

Vai commonly uses ASCII parentheses to insert parenthetical information into text.

	start	end
standard	( [U+0028 LEFT PARENTHESIS]	) [U+0029 RIGHT PARENTHESIS]

Quotations & citations

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Emphasis

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Abbreviation, ellipsis & repetition

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Inline notes & annotations

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Other punctuation

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Other inline text decoration

tbd

Line & paragraph layout

Line breaking & hyphenation

By default, lines can be broken at inter-word spaces, but Everson et alerr,6. provide additional rules. Essentially, a line can be broken after any syllable, with the following exceptions:

ꘋ [U+A60B VAI SYLLABLE NG] must not start a line if it is a syllable-final, but it can start a line if it represents the first-person singular pronoun.
ꘌ [U+A60C VAI SYLLABLE LENGTHENER] must not start a line.
A vowel that is lengthened by the addition of an hV syllable, where the vowel echoes that of the previous syllable, should not be split. However, a word containing 2 syllables where the vowel doesn't echo the former syllable can be split, eg. compare the following, where the first cannot be broken, but the second can: ꕇꔦ ꕙꔤ
A line should not be broken before ꘍ [U+A60D VAI COMMA], ꘎ [U+A60E VAI FULL STOP], and ꘏ [U+A60F VAI QUESTION MARK], and must not split the exclamation mark ꘎꘎ [U+A60E VAI FULL STOP + U+A60E VAI FULL STOP].

Observation: It is not clear whether words can be broken at syllable boundaries in text where words are separated by spaces, or whether these rules apply to text without inter-word spacing, or both.

Observation: An application that applies these rules will need to distinguish between a following hV syllable that extends a word, and another that is a syllable in its own right. Presumably, this will require looking up words in a dictionary.

Observation: Current browser behaviour doesn't split on syllable boundaries – only on spaces.

Show (default) line-breaking properties for characters in the modern Vai orthography.

Text alignment & justification

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Text spacing

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This section looks at ways in which spacing is applied between characters over and above that which is introduced during justification.

Baselines, line height, etc.

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Vai uses the so-called 'alphabetic' baseline, which is the same as for Latin and many other scripts.

Counters, lists, etc.

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Styling initials

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Vai Vai

Sample

Usage & history

Basic features

Character index

Letters

CV syllables

Vowels

Logograms

Other

Not used for Vai

Punctuation

ASCII

Structure

Phonology

Vowel sounds

Consonant sounds

Tones

Alphabet

Syllables

Vowel syllables

Consonant-vowel syllables

Plosives

Implosives

Affricates

Prenasalised

Fricatives

Nasals

Other sonorants

Final consonants & syllabic nasal

Long vowels & diphthongs

Historical syllables

Tones

Logograms

Numbers

Text direction

Glyph shaping & positioning

Font styling & weight

Graphemes

Grapheme clusters

Punctuation & inline features

Word boundaries

Phrase & section boundaries

Bracketed text

Quotations & citations

Emphasis

Abbreviation, ellipsis & repetition

Inline notes & annotations

Other punctuation

Other inline text decoration

Line & paragraph layout

Line breaking & hyphenation

Text alignment & justification

Text spacing

Baselines, line height, etc.

Counters, lists, etc.

Styling initials

Page & book layout

Online resources

References

Vai
Vai