رتبها

Incunabula

4 تغريدة 43 قراءة Dec 18, 2022

This is Vai, a Mande language spoken in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The Vai syllabary - arguably the most successful of all indigenous West African script systems - was created in the 1820s–30s by Mɔmɔlu Duwalu Bukɛlɛ from Jondu, Grand Cape Mount County, Liberia. 1/

"Vai mɔnu ta kpoloe" ꕙꔤ ꗞꖸ ꕚ ꕺꖃꔀ - [The book of the Vai people], printed at the De Pamphilis Press, 1944. A privately printed volume made for missionary use, with an alphabet and text, with the Vai language represented by both characters and a phonetic interpretation. 2/

Text in Vai:
- on pp. 1-22: Vai mɔɛnua jii kili [How the Vai people came down (to the coast)]
- on pp. 23-33: Vai kpolo nyɛi kiliɛ [How to write the Vai script]. 3/

AFAIK, these pages from "Vai mɔnu ta kpoloe" showing the entire Vai syllabary and its transliteration into modified Roman script, have not previously been digitized and placed online. 4/