Vai Syllable Ja

In Vai, ꕧ writes “ja,” beginning with the “j” sound in English “jam.” Vai signs represent syllables; alone, ꕧ is not a standard reaction.

Text symbol

What ꕧ means

It writes one Vai syllable: “ja.”

Vai signs each represent one syllable. Vai writing emerged in Liberia in the early 1830s, chiefly through Mọmọlu Duwalu Bukẹlẹ and other Vai speakers. A surviving page by scribe Fan Dawo Kelondo dates to 1834. Proposed influences—Arabic, Latin, Cherokee contact, and local picture signs—remain unsettled.

Vai served letters, trade, books, newspapers, tombstones, and ritual. Sierra Leone’s separate Mende Kikakui syllabary likely drew on Vai and Arabic around 1917; the Standard Vai Syllabary appeared in 1962.

Part of the collection

ꕙ

Vai Script

Who writes ꕧ

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Questions people ask

Why does ꕧ show as a box on some devices?

Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.