A West African writing system shows how letters evolve to get simpler

2 years ago 627

The characters utilized to constitute the Vai script, which was invented successful Liberia successful 1833, person go visually simpler implicit time, reflecting the evolutionary pressures acting connected writing

Humans 11 January 2022

By Colin Barras

New Scientist Default Image

A quality representing the syllable “bi” successful Vai script

Kelly et al

The symbols we usage to constitute words germinate to go visually simpler implicit time, and an investigation of a penning strategy from West Africa shows that they tin bash truthful implicit conscionable a fewer generations.

The publication utilized to constitute the Vai language was invented successful Liberia successful 1833 and is inactive successful usage today. The 8 men who devised it whitethorn person had immoderate consciousness of the Latin and Arabic alphabets, but the Vai publication isn’t modelled connected either. Its …

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