Vai language
| Vai | |
|---|---|
| ꕙꔤ | |
| Native to | Liberia,Sierra Leone |
| Region | Africa |
| Ethnicity | Vai people |
Native speakers | (120,000 cited 1991–2006)[1] |
| Vai syllabary | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | vai |
| ISO 639-3 | vai |
| Glottolog | vaii1241 |
TheVai language,also calledVyorGallinas,is aMande languagespoken by theVai people,roughly 104,000 inLiberia,and by smaller populations, some 15,500, inSierra Leone.[2]
Writing system
[edit]Vai is noteworthy for being one of the few African languages to have a writing system that is not based on theLatinorArabic script.ThisVai scriptis a syllabary invented byMomolu Duwalu Bukelearound 1833, although dates as early as 1815 have been alleged. The existence of Vai was reported in 1834 by Americanmissionariesin theMissionary Heraldof theABCFM[3]and independently by Rev.Sigismund Wilhelm Koelle,a Sierra Leone agent of theChurch Missionary Societyof London.[4]
The Vai script was used to print theNew Testamentin the Vai language, dedicated in 2003.
Phonology
[edit]Vai is atonal languageand has 11vowelsand 31consonants,which are tabulated below.[5]
Vowels
[edit]| Oral vowels | Nasal vowels | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Back | Front | Back | |
| Close | iiː | uuː | ĩĩː | |
| Close-mid | eeː | ooː | ɛ̃ɛ̃ː | ɔ̃ɔ̃ː |
| Open-mid | ɛɛː | ɔɔː | ||
| Open | aaː | ããː | ||
Consonants
[edit]| Labial | Alveolar | Post-al. /palatal |
Velar | Labial -velar |
Glottal | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||||||
| Stop/ Prenasalised |
p |
b mb |
t |
d nd |
c |
ɟ ɲɟ |
k |
g ŋɡ |
k͡p |
ŋ͡mɡ͡b |
||
| Implosive | ɓ | (ɗ) | ɠ͡ɓ | |||||||||
| Fricatives | f | v | s | z | (ʃ) | h | ||||||
| Approximant (Lateral) |
j | w | ||||||||||
| l~ɗ | ||||||||||||
| Trill | (r) | |||||||||||
[r]and[ʃ]occur only in recentloanwords.[clarification neededfrom which language?]
Sample text
[edit]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."
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^VaiatEthnologue(18th ed., 2015)(subscription required)
- ^Ethnologue report for Vai
- ^"Report of Messrs. Wilson and Wynkoop".Missionary Herald.June 1834. p. 215.
- ^"A Written language in Western Africa".The New-Jerusalem Magazine.23(10). A. Howard: 431. 1850.
- ^Welmers, William (1976).A Grammar of Vai.University of California Press.
- ^"UDHR - Vai".unicode.org.Retrieved2023-01-31.
Further reading
[edit]- Koelle, S. W. (1854).Outlines of a grammar of the Vei language: together with a Vei-English vocabulary.Church Missionary House.OCLC20216750.
- Welmers, William (1976).A Grammar of Vai.University of California Press.ISBN0520095553.
External links
[edit]
- Vai Script workshop
- Omniglot entry on Vai script
- Smithsonian exhibit on Vai and other African scripts
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Vai
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