The Bassa script, known as Bassa vah or simply vah ('throwing a sign' in Bassa) is an alphabet for writing the Bassa language of Liberia. It was popularized by Dr. Thomas Flo Lewis, who has instigated publishing of limited materials in the language from the mid-1900s through the 1930s, with its height in the 1910s and 1920s. It is alleged that some of the signs are based on native Bassa pictograms revealed by a former slave. It is not clear what connection it may have had with neighboring scripts, but type was cast for it, and an association for its promotion was formed in Liberia in 1959. It is not used contemporarily and has been classified as a failed script. Its creation should be distinguished from other orthographic attempts in the 1830s by European missionaries.