Vai syllable A

ꕉ writes the Vai syllable a on its own.

Vai is written with a syllabary: its signs represent syllables, rather than individual sounds or letters.

The Vai script developed in Liberia in the early 1830s to help Vai speakers communicate over distance and keep accounts; merchants and traders used it. The earliest known Vai manuscript sample dates to 1834, and the Vai-language Book of Ndole survives from around 1845. As of 2026, the script is learned informally and used for correspondence and record-keeping alongside English and Arabic. Its syllabic design later influenced the Mende, Loma, and Kpelle scripts.