Vai Syllable Mi

ꕆ is the Vai syllable mi.

Vai writers developed the script in Liberia in the early 1830s; Mọmọlu Duwalu Bukẹlẹ later said a dream inspired it. Possible influence from Latin, Arabic, or Cherokee writing remains debated. The earliest surviving sample dates to 1834; the Book of Ndole survives from ca. 1845. The script served schools, correspondence, trade and family records, and religious translations alongside English and Arabic literacy.

What did Vai writing influence?

Its syllabic design inspired later scripts. In the first half of the twentieth century, Mende, Loma, and Kpelle writers made new syllabaries; a Bassa writer familiar with Vai made a separate alphabet. They used new characters.

The 1962 standard gathered older forms and later additions.