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 |