Vai syllable sign

It writes the Vai syllable transliterated “fee.”

Vai is a syllabary: each sign writes one syllable, and text runs left to right. The Latin-letter rendering “fee” is pronounced like English fee.

How did Vai writing begin?

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

Bukẹlẹ was a central figure, alongside others. The earliest surviving Vai manuscript is an 1834 handwritten example. Its archive note credits young Vai people who wanted to write their language after seeing Americans exchange letters. Early forms varied; Mende, Loma, and Kpelle syllabaries later drew on Vai’s model.