Vai syllable ho

In Vai, ꖽ spells ho or lengthens the preceding vowel.

Inside a word, it normally writes one syllable. As one of the signs whose Vai names begin with h, it can instead follow another syllable and extend that syllable’s vowel. In that position, it does not add a separate ho syllable.

Why was the Vai script developed?

It was created for writing Vai and keeping everyday records.

The script took shape around 1833 among Vai speakers in Liberia. Later accounts place Momolu Duwalu Bukele at its center. The earliest known surviving sample, from 1834, was written by Fan Dawo Kelondo at missionary John Leighton Wilson’s request.

Early Vai texts included logograms—signs for whole words—alongside syllabic signs, and the script served letters and everyday records. Possible connections to Latin and Arabic writing have been proposed; a Cherokee connection remains debated, as does the possibility that Vai writers regularized an earlier pictographic tradition. In 1962, the University of Liberia’s standardization tried to assign one sign to each syllable. Later systems for Mende, Loma, and Kpelle drew on Vai’s syllabic organization but used their own characters. Vai literacy also supported cultural identity, literature, religious translation, commerce, rituals, and public messages.