Duployan letter Oa

It represents a vowel in Duployan writing.

Pernin and Perrault shorthand use it for the vowel their systems call “aw.” The name Oa does not set one sound across every adaptation.

This Duployan circle vowel joins neighboring letters. In connected writing, nearby strokes can complete its outline, so the shape may look open.

How did the system travel?

A French speed-writing system later served other languages.

Émile Duployé published his French shorthand in 1860 to record speech quickly.

In British Columbia, Catholic priest Jean-Marie-Raphaël Le Jeune adapted it as chinuk pipa (“Chinook writing”) for Chinook Jargon, a regional contact language, and for Okanagan, Lillooet, Shuswap, and North Thompson. The Kamloops Wawa newsletter, begun in 1891, records this shift from shorthand notes to writing languages.