Vai script

E302235

The Vai script is an indigenous syllabic writing system from Liberia and Sierra Leone, created in the 19th century by the Vai people to represent their own language.

All labels observed (1)

Label Occurrences
Vai script canonical 2

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (49)

Predicate Object
instanceOf indigenous script
syllabary
writing system
alsoUsedIn Sierra Leone
approximateCreationDate c. 1830s
continent Africa
countryOfOrigin Liberia
creator Momolu Duwalu Bukele
directionOfWriting left-to-right
encodedInStandard Unicode
hasApproximateNumberOfSigns over 200
hasAssociatedEthnicity Vai
hasCharacterCategory syllabograms
hasCharacterType syllabic signs
hasCulturalRole symbol of Vai identity
hasDomainOfUse literary works
personal correspondence
record keeping
religious texts
hasGeographicDistribution Liberia
Sierra Leone
hasHistoricalSignificance one of the few indigenous African scripts not derived from Arabic or Latin
hasISO15924Code Vaii
hasISO15924Number 470
hasLanguageFamily Mande languages
hasLinguisticUnitRepresented syllable
hasOriginalFunction recording messages and trade information
hasScriptDevelopment standardized in the 20th century
hasScriptStatus minority script
hasScriptType featural syllabary
hasTransliterationTarget Latin script
hasUsageStatus currently used
hasUserCommunity ethnic Vai communities in Liberia
ethnic Vai communities in Sierra Leone
hasWritingDirection horizontal
hasWritingMedium paper
slates
walls
hasWritingSystemType syllabic
influencedBy possibly Cherokee syllabary
primaryUsage writing the Vai language
recognizedBy Unicode Consortium
region West Africa
scriptFamily indigenous African scripts
timeOfCreation 19th century
unicodeBlockName Vai
unicodeBlockRange U+A500–U+A63F
usedBy Vai people
writingSystemFor Vai language

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (2)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Vai hasScript Vai script
subject surface form: Vai language