A Diachronic Comparison of the Vai Script of Liberia (1834–2005)

Olena Tykhostup; Piers Kelly

doi:10.5334/johd.10

Abstract

This dataset provides the first comprehensive diachronic comparison of the Vai script of Liberia, as derived from sixteen sources dated between 1834 and 2005. The Vai syllabary was invented by non-literate speakers of a Mande language and is of interest to scholars in the fields of writing and cultural transmission as an emergent writing system. Script samples that entered the dataset were retrieved from a wide variety of published manuscripts. The compiled dataset tracks the evolution of the Vai script via archival records and has reuse potential across various fields of research.

References

Lewis, MP, Simons, GF and Fennig, CD, (eds.). Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 2015; Dallas, Texas: SIL International.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Scribner, S and Cole, M. The psychology of literacy. 1981; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. DOI: 10.4159/harvard.9780674433014
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Dalby, D. A survey of the indigenous scripts of Liberia and Sierra Leone: Vai, Mende, Loma, Kpelle and Bassa. In: African Language Studies, Malcolm, G (ed.). 1967; 1–51. London: School of Oriental and African Studies.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Dalby, D. The indigenous scripts of West Africa and Surinam: Their inspiration and design. African Language Studies. 1968; 9: 156–197.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Dalby, D. Further indigenous scripts of West Africa: Manding, Wolof, and Fula alphabets and Yoruba holy-writing. African Language Studies. 1969; 10: 161–191.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Galtier, G. Un exemple d’écriture traditionnelle mandingue: le «Masaba» des Bambara-Masasi du Mali. Journal des africanistes. 1987; 57(1–2): 255–266.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Azuonye, C. The Nwagu Aneke Igbo Script: Its origins, features and potentials as a medium of alternative literacy in African languages; 1992.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Tuchscherer, K. Recording, communicating and making visible: A history of writing and systems of graphic symbolism in Africa. In: Kreamer, CM. et al. (eds.), Inscribing meaning: Writing and graphic systems in African art. 2007; 37–53. Washington DC: Smithsonian National Museum of African Art.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Rovenchak, A and Glavy, J. African writing systems of the modern age: The sub-saharan region. 2011; New Haven: Athinkra.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Tylor, EB. Researches into the early history of mankind and the development of civilization. [1865]1878; Boston: Estes & Lauriat. DOI: 10.1037/12848-000
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Kroeber, AL Stimulus diffusion. American Anthropologist. 1940; 42(1): 1–20. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1940.42.1.02a00020
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Kelly, P. The invention, transmission and evolution of writing: Insights from the new scripts of West Africa. In: Ferrara, S. et al. (eds.), Paths into script formation in the ancient Mediterranean. under review; Studi Micenei ed Egeo Anatolici.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Delafosse, M. Les Vaï: Leur langue et leur système d’écriture. 1899; Paris: Maison.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Johnston, H. Liberia. 1906; II. London: Hutchison & Co.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Jensen, H. Sign, symbol, and script: An account of man’s efforts to write. [1958]1970; Translated by George Unwin. London: George Allen and Unwin.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Stewart, G. The early Vai script found in the Book of Ndole. In: Conference on Manding Studies: Congrés d’Études Manding. 1972; 1–27. London: School of Oriental and African Studies.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Rovenchak, A, Riley, C and Sherman, T. Complexity of the Vai script revisited: A frequency study of the syllabary. In: Kelih, E. et al. (eds.), Issues in Quantitative Linguistics 2. 2011; Lüdenscheid: RAM Verlag.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Norris, E. Notes on the Vei language and alphabet. Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London. 1851; 20: 101–113. DOI: 10.2307/1798021
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Baumann, O. Zur Kenntnis der Wai-Neger. Globus. 1887; 52(15): 238–239.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Ellis, GW. Negro culture in West Africa. 1914; New York: The Neale Publishing Company.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Rora. The book of Rora in the Vei language. 1851; [London].
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Koelle, SW. Outlines of a grammar of the Vei language together with a Vei-English vocabulary. 1854; London: Church Missionary House.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Tuchscherer, K and Hair, PEH. Cherokee and West Africa: Examining the origins of the Vai script. History in Africa. 2002; 29: 427–486. DOI: 10.2307/3172173
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Forbes, FE. Despatch communicating the discovery of a native written character at Bohmar, on the Western Coast of Africa, near Liberia, accompanied by a vocabulary of the Vahie or Vei tongue. Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London. 1851; 20: 89–101. DOI: 10.2307/1798020
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Koelle, SW. Narrative of an expedition into the Vy country of West Africa and the discovery of a system of syllabic writing recently invented by the natives of the Vy tribe. 1849; London: Seeleys, Fleet Street; Hatchards, Piccadilly; J. Nisbet and Co. Berners Street.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Payne, JS. Foreign missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church: Africa. Spirit of the Missions. 1860; 25: 365–383.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Creswick, HC. On the syllabic characters in use amongst the Vey negroes. Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London. 1868; 6: 260–263. DOI: 10.2307/3014265
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Migeod, FWH. The syllabic writing of the Vai people. Journal of the Royal African Society. 1909; 9(33): 46–58.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Massaquoi, M. The Vey language. The Spirit of Missions. 1899; 64: 577–579.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Massaquoi, M. The Vai people and their syllabic writing. Journal of the Royal African Society. 1911; 10(40): 459–466. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a101776
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Klingenheben, A. The Vai script. Journal of the International African Institute. 1933; 6(2): 158–171. DOI: 10.2307/1155181
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Kandakai, Z, Johnson, SJ, Moore, BT and Massaquoi Fahnbulleh, F. The standard Vai script. 1962; Liberia: The University of Liberia African Studies Program.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Everson, M, Riley, C and Rivera, J. Proposal to add the Vai script to the BMP of the UCS. Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set International Organization for Standardization. 2005; ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 N2948R: L2/05-159R.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Senghas, A, Kita, S and Özyürek, A. Children creating core properties of language: Evidence from an emerging sign language in Nicaragua. Science. 2004; 305(5691): 1779–1782. DOI: 10.1126/science.1100199
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Senghas, A. Language emergence: Clues from a new Bedouin sign language Current Biology. 2005; 15(12): R463–R465. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2005.06.018
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
O’Shannessy, C. The role of multiple sources in the formation of an innovative auxiliary category in Light Warlpiri, a new Australian mixed language. Language. 2013; 89(2): 328–353. DOI: 10.1353/lan.2013.0025
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
McConvell, P and Meakins, F. Gurindji Kriol: A mixed language emerges from code-switching. Australian journal of linguistics. 2005; 25(1): 9–30. DOI: 10.1080/07268600500110456
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Justeson, JS. Universals of language and universals of writing. In: Julliand, A. et al. (eds.), Linguistic studies offered to Joseph Greenberg. 1976; 57–94. Saratoga, California: Anma Libri.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Changizi, MA, Zhang, Q, Ye, H and Shinsuke, S. The structures of letters and symbols throughout human history are selected to match those found in objects in natural scenes. The American Naturalist. 2006; 16(5): E117–E139. DOI: 10.1086/502806
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Dehaene, S. Reading in the brain: The science and evolution of a human invention. 2009; New York: Viking.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Puranik, CS and Lonigan, CJ. From scribbles to scrabble: Preschool children’s developing knowledge of written language. Reading and Writing. 2011; 24(5): 567–589. DOI: 10.1007/s11145-009-9220-8
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Downey, G. All forms of writing. Mind & Language. 2014; 29(3): 304–319. DOI: 10.1111/mila.12052
Open DOI Search in Google Scholar Back to article

A Diachronic Comparison of the Vai Script of Liberia (1834–2005)

Abstract

Paradigm

My account