Vai Syllable Dhee

It contributes one syllable within a Vai word.

Vai uses a syllabary, where each sign represents a spoken syllable rather than an individual consonant or vowel. Dhee is the Latin transcription of this sign's syllable; the surrounding Vai text supplies the word's meaning. The script developed in Jondu, Liberia, in the early 1830s, led by Mọmọlu Duwalu Bukẹlẹ and other Vai writers. Bukẹlẹ later said a dream inspired it. The earliest known sample is a page by Fan Dawo Kelondo dated 1834; the Book of Ndole, dated ca. 1845, is the longest surviving early text.

Vai writing served correspondence and record-keeping; 20th-century texts include diaries, clan histories, folktales, religious translations, and newsletters. Possible influences include Latin, Arabic, Cherokee, or an earlier pictographic system adapted to record speech; these proposals remain uncertain. Standardization efforts took place in 1899 and 1962, and historical manuscripts preserve forms beyond any one modern font drawing.

How do I type ꔐ?

Use a Vai keyboard or hexadecimal entry for your system.

In Word for Windows, type A510 and press Alt+X; on macOS, enable Unicode Hex Input, switch to it, then hold Option and type A510; on GNOME/GTK Linux, press Ctrl+Shift+U, type a510, then press Enter or Space. As of 2026-10-08, iOS and Android have no official hexadecimal-entry path; use a Vai-capable keyboard.