Bassa alphabet

Origin

The origins of the Bassa alphabet are obscure. Its name in Bassa is Vah, which means 'to throw a sign'. The alphabet fell out of use in Liberia during the 19th century.

In the 1900s, a Bassa by the name of Dr Flo Darvin Lewis discovered that former slaves of Bassa origin living in Brazil and the West Indies were still using the Bassa alphabet. Dr Lewis had not encountered the alphabet before and, after learning it himself, he decided to try to revive the alphabet in Liberia.

Dr Lewis obtained a PhD in Chemistry at Syracuse University, then returned to Liberia via Dresden, where he commissioned a company to manufacture the first ever printing press for material written in the Bassa alphabet. In Liberia he set up a school to teach the Bassa alphabet.

Today the Bassa Vah Association promotes the use of the Bassa alphabet.

Notable features

Bassa in a tonal language. Tones are marked using a system of dots and dashes which appear inside the vowel letters.

Used to write:

Bassa, a Kru language spoken mainly in Liberia by about 300,000 people.

Bassa alphabet

Bassa tones

Thanks to Varnie N'jola Karmo of the Bassa Vah Association and Mattias Persson for information on the Bassa alphabet.

Links

Free Bassa fonts
http://www.ie-inc.com/vkarmo/bfont.htm

The Bassa homepage
http://www.ie-inc.com/vkarmo/bassa.htm

Other alphabets

Armenian, Avestan, Bassa (Vah), Beitha Kukju, Coptic, Cyrillic, Elbsan, Etruscan, Fraser, Georgian (Asomtavruli & Nuskha-khucuri), Georgian (Mkhedruli), Glagolitic, Gothic, Greek, Hungarian Runes, Irish, Kayah Li, Korean, Latin, Lycian, Lydian, Manchu, Meroïtic, Mongolian, N'Ko, Ogham, Old Church Slavonic, Oirat Clear Script, Old Italic, Old Permic, Orkhon, Pollard Miao, Runic, Santali, Somali, Sutton SignWriting, Tai Dam, Thaana, Uyghur