Vai language

The Vai language, also called Vy or Gallinas, is a Mande language spoken by the Vai people, roughly 104,000 in Liberia, and by smaller populations, some 15,500, in Sierra Leone.[2]

Vai
ꕙꔤ
Native toLiberia, Sierra Leone
RegionAfrica
EthnicityVai people
Native speakers
(120,000 cited 1991–2006)[1]
Mande
  • Western Mande
    • Central
      • Manding–Jogo
        • Manding–Vai
          • Vai–Kono
            • Vai
Vai syllabary
Language codes
ISO 639-2vai
ISO 639-3vai
Glottologvaii1241

Writing system
Main article: Vai syllabary

Vai is noteworthy for being one of the few African languages to have a writing system that is not based on the Latin or Arabic script. This Vai script is a syllabary invented by Momolu Duwalu Bukele around 1833, although dates as early as 1815 have been alleged. The existence of Vai was reported in 1834 by American missionaries in the Missionary Herald of the ABCFM[3] and independently by Rev. Sigismund Wilhelm Koelle, a Sierra Leone agent of the Church Missionary Society of London.[4]

The Vai script was used to print the New Testament in the Vai language, dedicated in 2003.

Phonology

Vai is a tonal language and has 12 vowels and 31 consonants, which are tabulated below.

Vowels
  Oral vowels Nasal vowels
Front Back Front Back
Close i i u u ĩ ĩ ũ ũ
Close-mid e e o o ɛ̃ ɛ̃ ɔ̃ ɔ̃
Open-mid ɛ ɛ ɔ ɔ
Open a a ã ã

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Post-al.
/palatal		 Velar Labial
-velar		 Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Stop/
Affricate		 p
 		b
mb		 t
 		d
nd		 c
 		ɟ
ɲɟ		 k
 		g
ŋɡ		 k͡p
 		 
ŋ͡mɡ͡b
Implosive ɓ l ~ ɗ ɠ͡ɓ
Fricatives fv sz (ʃ) h
Approximant
(Lateral)		 j w
l ~ ɗ
Trill (r)

[r] and [ʃ] occur only in recent loanwords.

See also

References
  1. Vai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Ethnologue report for Vai
  3. "Report of Messrs. Wilson and Wynkoop". Missionary Herald. June 1834. p. 215.
  4. "A Written language in Western Africa". The New-Jerusalem Magazine. A. Howard. 23 (10): 431. 1850.


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