TheVai language, also calledLiberian,Vy orGallinas, is aMande language spoken by theVai people, roughly 104,000 inLiberia, and by smaller populations, some 15,500, inSierra Leone.^[2]

Vai is noteworthy for being one of the few African languages to have a writing system that is not based on theLatin orArabic script. ThisVai script is a syllabary invented byMomolu Duwalu Bukele around 1833, although dates as early as 1815 have been alleged. The existence of Vai was reported in 1834 by Americanmissionaries in theMissionary Herald of theABCFM^[3] and independently by Rev.Sigismund Wilhelm Koelle, a Sierra Leone agent of theChurch Missionary Society of London.^[4]

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

Vai is atonal language and has 11vowels and 31consonants, which are tabulated below.^[5]

[r] and[ʃ] occur only in recentloanwords.^{[clarification needed from which language?]}

The following is a sample text in Vai of Article 1 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights.^[6]

Vai: "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."

IPA:/adamaɗeŋnũg͡bitɔŋmaⁿd͡ʒaɗeŋnũwaanũawolokiːjɛfɛ,amũɓɛːsiːlɔⁿɗɔɛwaɓɛanũakowa.aⁿɗakotɛmaːlɔkasɔamũanũfalaɓɛ.komũanũhĩkonũtahajɛlɛilakɛmũnɛ̃hĩɲɔ̃ːlakuŋtijaanũtɛ./

English original: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

• Vai syllabary

• Koelle, S. W. (1854).Outlines of a grammar of the Vei language: together with a Vei-English vocabulary. Church Missionary House.OCLC 20216750.
• Welmers, William (1976).A Grammar of Vai. University of California Press.ISBN 0520095553.

Vai language test ofWikipedia atWikimedia Incubator

• Vai Script workshopArchived 2014-02-28 at theWayback Machine
• Omniglot entry on Vai script
• Smithsonian exhibit on Vai and other African scripts
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights in VaiArchived 2023-11-20 at theWayback Machine

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