I had forgotten that I have an article by K. Tuchscherer with me and
it has a Vai passage from 1834 - the earliest extant manuscript in
Vai.
It has 223 syllables and uses about 60 symbols.
PE 2
BA 4, BE 2, BO 1, BOO 2
GBI 3, KPA 1
FA 6
TI 2, TA 1, TU 1, TE 1, TO 1, TOO 1
LI 7 LA/DA 10 (symbols interchangeable in N'dole) LU 1, LEE 8, LE 4,
LO 6, LOO 8
DO 1
SI 4, SA 1, SU 1, SOO 1
JA 7, YEE 1, JE 4
KI 1, KA 13, KEE 1, KE 3, KOO 4
NGA 2,
WA 4, WEE 3, WO 1, WOO 2
H(nasal) 1
MA~ 17, ME~ 1?, MO~ 11
NI~ 6, NA~ 6, NE~ 2,
NYI~ 4, NYA~ 4, NYO~ 1
Syllabic Nasal 5
So I think the rows are p, b_, gb, f, t, l, d_, s, j/y, k, gb, w, V
and all the nasals.
As you said the 'a' vowel has the most distinctions.
There were a few symbols that I couldn't identify either from the
N'dole syllabary or Dalby's 1849 list. (There is no transcription
along with it.) Richard, I could send you a copy of the text from
KT's article if you wish and the full text of the chapter from WWS.