Alphabet for the Bassa language of Liberia
Bassa Vah, also known as simply vah ('throwing a sign' in Bassa) is an alphabetic script for writing the Bassa language of Liberia.[citation needed] It was invented by Dr. Thomas Flo Lewis.[citation needed] Type was cast for it, and an association for its promotion was formed in Liberia in 1959.[citation needed] It is not used contemporarily and has been classified as a failed script.[2]
Vah is a true alphabet, with 23 consonant letters, 7 vowel letters, and 5 tone diacritics, which are placed inside the vowels. It also has its own marks for commas and periods.[citation needed]
Letters
The Bassa Vah script is written from left to right. A fullstop/period is represented with 𖫵.
Letters
| IPA
|
Latin
|
Bassa Vah
|
IPA
|
Latin
|
Bassa Vah
|
IPA
|
Latin
|
Bassa Vah
|
| [a]
|
A/a
|
𖫧
|
[g]
|
G/g
|
𖫖
|
[ɔ]
|
Ɔ/ɔ
|
𖫨
|
| [b]
|
B/b
|
𖫢
|
[ɡ͡b]
|
Gb/gb
|
𖫝
|
[o]
|
O/o
|
𖫩
|
| [ɓ]/[mᵇ]
|
Ɓ/ɓ
|
𖫔
|
[ŋ͡m]
|
Gm/gm
|
𖫔
|
[p]
|
P/p
|
𖫥
|
| [c]
|
C/c
|
𖫟
|
[h]
|
H/h
|
𖫤
|
[s]
|
S/s
|
𖫒
|
| [d]
|
D/d
|
𖫗
|
[hʷ]
|
Hw/hw
|
𖫠
|
[t]
|
T/t
|
𖫡
|
| [ɖ]/[ɺ]
|
Đ/ɖ
|
𖫦
|
[i]
|
I/i
|
𖫭
|
[u]
|
U/u
|
𖫪
|
| [dʲ]/[ɲ]
|
Dy/dy
|
𖫕
|
[ɟ]
|
J/j
|
𖫙
|
[v]
|
V/v
|
𖫣
|
| [e]
|
E/e
|
𖫫
|
[k]
|
K/k
|
𖫑
|
[w]
|
W/w
|
𖫛
|
| [ɛ]
|
Ɛ/ɛ
|
𖫬
|
[k͡p]
|
Kp/kp
|
𖫘
|
[xʷ]/[ħʷ]
|
Xw/xw
|
𖫚
|
| [f]
|
F/f
|
𖫓
|
[n]
|
N/n
|
𖫐
|
[z]
|
Z/z
|
𖫜
|
Tones
Bassa Vah uses 5 diacritical marks to denote tonality of its vowels. It distinguishes five tones: high, low, mid, mid-rising, and falling.
| IPA
|
Latin with a
|
Vah with 𖫧
|
Vah diacritic
|
| ˦
|
á
|
𖫧𖫰
|
𖫰◌
|
| ˨
|
à
|
𖫧𖫱
|
𖫱◌
|
| ˧
|
a
|
𖫧𖫲
|
𖫲◌
|
| ˨˧
|
ă
|
𖫧𖫳
|
𖫳◌
|
| ˥˩
|
â
|
𖫧𖫴
|
𖫴◌
|
Unicode
The Bassa Vah alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in June 2014 with the release of version 7.0.
The Unicode block for the Bassa alphabet is U+16AD0–U+16AFF:
