Bassa alphabet

The Bassa script, known as Bassa vah or simply vah ('throwing a sign' in Bassa) is an alphabet for writing the Bassa language of Liberia. Its creation is attributed to Dr. Thomas Flo Lewis, who has instigated publishing of limited materials in the language from the mid-1900s through the 1930s, with its height in the 1910s and 1920s. It is alleged that some of the signs are based on native Bassa pictograms revealed by a former slave. It is not clear what connection it may have had with neighboring scripts, but type was cast for it, and an association for its promotion was formed in Liberia in 1959. It is not used contemporarily and has been classified as a failed script. Its creation should be distinguished from other orthographic attempts in the 1830s by European missionaries.

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.

Unicode

The Bassa alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in June 2014 with the release of version 7.0.

Bassa Vah (Unicode block)

Bassa Vah is a Unicode block containing characters historically used for writing the Bassa language of Liberia and Sierra Leone.

References