ꖻ Vai Nasalized O Syllable

What ꖻ means

ꖻ is the Vai nasalized o syllable, conventionally romanized “on.”

Nasalized means the o vowel is made with air flowing through the nose as well as the mouth. In “on,” the final n marks that quality; it is not a separate n sound.

Vai is a syllabary, a writing system where each sign represents a syllable. Inside a word, ꖻ contributes that sound; alone, it lacks the surrounding word or sentence.

Why was the Vai script created?

Vai speakers developed it to write their own language.

Vai is a syllabary: each sign represents a syllable. The writing system took shape in the early 1830s, chiefly through Mọmọlu Duwalu Bukẹlẹ and other Vai speakers in Liberia. Early uses included correspondence, record-keeping, schools, and manuscripts.

The earliest known sample is a one-page manuscript dated 1834. The Book of Ndole, the longest surviving early Vai text, survives from around 1845; observers recorded the script again in 1849.

How do I type ꖻ?

A Vai keyboard or character map can enter it.

The MediaWiki Vai transliteration instructions documented on 8 September 2023 map o~ to ꖻ: type o followed by a tilde to mark the nasalized vowel. This shortcut applies to that input layout.

A square or question mark can appear when the selected font lacks Vai coverage. Try a font that supports the Vai script.

In Vai writing it is ordinary text; alone, it reads as a script sample or syllable fragment.

A square can mark missing font support, not a different character.