Page talk:Researches into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization.djvu/113
Latest comment: 6 years ago by Beleg Tâl in topic Vai syllables
Vai syllables[edit]
Trying to identify characters is difficult, so I'll explain my thoughts and choices. My source for translations is William Everett Welmers' [A Grammar of Vai]. There is also a useful chart on page 13-14 of the Vai Unicode proposal here.
Vai | Roman | Notes |
---|---|---|
In the text | ||
ꗬ | gba (kpe) | Text says character means "money". However, according to Welmers, money is "jà-fêŋ". Besides which, gba is represented as ꕗ, even below in fig. 13. I decided that the character ꗬ (kpe) was more likely to be the one meant. It is similar in both sound and appearance, especially when drawn without a line connecting the circles (as here, p. 13). It doesn't mean "money" though; Welmers lists "kpɛ́" as meaning either "white" or "alchoholic beverage". |
ꖜ | bu (bhu) | Text says character means "gun", to which Welmers agrees. Also worth noting that Unicode lists the character as "bhu", distinct from ꖝ "bu". |
ꕀ | chi (ji) | Text says character means "water", to which Welmers agrees. The character is listed in Unicode as "ji" (/dʒi/), and there is a separate character ꔿ "ci" which is pronounced /tʃi/. |
In fig. 13 | ||
ꔇ | be (bee) | The glyph appears to have been flipped since the text was published, which is corroborated by the Unicode proposal (p. 13). |
ꘓ | fen (feeng) | |
ꕗ | gba (gba) | See the discussion above regarding ꗬ "kpe" |
? | gbe | Appears to be a variant of ꔉ (kpee) |
ꔋ | gbe (gbee) | |
ꗫ | mbe (mbe) | The glyph that looks like "K" is an older variant listed in the Unicode proposal. |
ꕯ | na (na) | |
ꕶ | po (poo) | |
? | po | Appears to be an older variant of ꕶ; I don't think it's represented in Unicode. |
? | re (le) | Older variant of ꔒ |
? | re (le) | Older variant of ꔒ |