Vai Syllable Dho

It represents the Vai syllable dho.

The Latin transcription used in Unicode names it dho: dh marks one voiced d sound, followed by an open o made with the mouth slightly wider. The Vai syllabary writes syllables as units; ꗍ is one unit, not a whole word.

Surrounding Vai syllables and tone show how ꗍ fits into a word. Its meaning comes from the word it helps spell.

How did the Vai script begin?

Vai writing took shape in Liberia in the early 1830s.

Vai is spoken in coastal western Liberia and eastern Sierra Leone. The earliest known surviving sample is a one-page manuscript dated 1834. Its note says young people wanted a way to communicate in their language after seeing Americans exchange letters.

Momolu Duwalu Bukele is chiefly associated with the script's development, and a later account by him describes a dream. Other accounts give different dates and possible influences: Latin, Arabic, perhaps Cherokee, or the shaping of earlier local pictorial signs. Educational networks helped it spread; by the late 19th century, Vai writing was widely read. It served letters, records, manuscripts, histories, and Islamic moral writing. Its structure later influenced Mende, Loma, Kpelle, and Bassa scripts, and may have influenced Bamum; each has its own signs.

What if someone sends ꗍ by itself?

It identifies a Vai syllable, not a whole message.

Without surrounding Vai text, ꗍ does not tell you a complete word or sentence. Ask what word or passage it belongs to.