diff --git a/dev-lang/vala/Manifest b/dev-lang/vala/Manifest
index fd0313f1..8da95212 100644
--- a/dev-lang/vala/Manifest
+++ b/dev-lang/vala/Manifest
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 DIST vala-0.38.8.tar.xz 3405060 SHA256 2fa746b51cd66e43577d1da06a80b708c2875cadaafee77e9700ea35cf23882c SHA512 de4e2d3d5fbe610a6ff4c42ab006ace803d2d90fe55a9c73262c4cda4e8bd352e010c6dcc8652bf439ae220b3090a8792eab55f70e296f62992cdb8ea23a6212 WHIRLPOOL 777b37e59d5a4b42a51cf217d0f4f7b1c860d0f506582856b1cd4d45de2da5adc01195306e32b40dfc7c6a4cebf87438bc4bb741f56d0b7706ea1ada84ab3bb7
 DIST vala-0.39.7.tar.xz 3311764 SHA256 a54ec96125fdb63dbf96a8a3a65df41fdd88a617c1354088b5e10f8f0c89914d SHA512 5a801ed93af1cbe6c4739f6ed114ba7d598a537983b34f0e288304919d890f83e2f8658f1aa019670162382ec47fc4489e0aec2187b00ee3f6ddd494e0eb2068 WHIRLPOOL ff8950bd857ced4b408961930b049acf025b8249ee1a3ee76146d8fdc57e99acee0150636542794f7dc393afef452b040d2cb7ac0ebd7e3ecd9668a2cd761ead
+DIST vala-0.40.4.tar.xz 3346216 SHA256 379354a2a2f7ee5c4d6e0f5e88b0e32620dcd5f51972baf6d90d9f18eb689198 SHA512 e8d2b02981e2a14ac1d336fa2e8d8d6ae5c207ad8991abfab135d06b2cef823966cca21bb7881257b80b7429738d11d9639b10b8a7031cef8f14f5d72b631af7 WHIRLPOOL 8c8ac76a62bf89603eccc8c3712e68e1af544b7f2401400867e28b19ac8bc7c02d6ab3e6fc4129095c0ab22cada3edfe52bd0d72ed849db5df6b46a06c3ee165
diff --git a/dev-lang/vala/vala-0.40.4.ebuild b/dev-lang/vala/vala-0.40.4.ebuild
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..598990cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dev-lang/vala/vala-0.40.4.ebuild
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+# Copyright 1999-2017 Gentoo Foundation
+# Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2
+
+EAPI=6
+inherit gnome2
+
+DESCRIPTION="Compiler for the GObject type system"
+HOMEPAGE="https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Vala"
+
+SRC_URI="https://download.gnome.org/sources/vala/0.40/vala-${PV}.tar.xz"
+
+LICENSE="LGPL-2.1"
+SLOT="0.40"
+KEYWORDS="~alpha ~amd64 ~arm ~arm64 ~hppa ~ia64 ~mips ~ppc ~ppc64 ~s390 ~sh ~sparc ~x86 ~amd64-fbsd ~x86-fbsd ~arm-linux ~x86-linux"
+IUSE="test"
+
+RDEPEND="
+	>=dev-libs/glib-2.32:2
+	>=dev-libs/vala-common-${PV}
+"
+
+#TODO: slot install is a bit broken
+DEPEND="${RDEPEND}
+	!${CATEGORY}/${PN}:0
+	dev-libs/libxslt
+	sys-devel/flex
+	virtual/pkgconfig
+	virtual/yacc
+	test? (
+		dev-libs/dbus-glib
+		>=dev-libs/glib-2.26:2 )
+	>=media-gfx/graphviz-2.40.1
+	!dev-lang/vala:0.38
+"
+
+src_configure() {
+	gnome2_src_configure --disable-unversioned
+}
+
+src_install() {
+	emake DESTDIR="${D}" install
+	dosym /usr/bin/vala-"${SLOT}" /usr/bin/vala
+	dosym /usr/bin/vala-gen-introspect-"${SLOT}" /usr/bin/vala-gen-introspect
+	dosym /usr/bin/valac-"${SLOT}" /usr/bin/valac
+	dosym /usr/bin/valadoc-"${SLOT}" /usr/bin/valadoc
+	dosym /usr/bin/vapicheck-"${SLOT}" /usr/bin/vapicheck
+	dosym /usr/bin/vapigen-"${SLOT}" /usr/bin/vapigen
+}
diff --git a/dev-libs/vala-common/Manifest b/dev-libs/vala-common/Manifest
index fd0313f1..8da95212 100644
--- a/dev-libs/vala-common/Manifest
+++ b/dev-libs/vala-common/Manifest
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 DIST vala-0.38.8.tar.xz 3405060 SHA256 2fa746b51cd66e43577d1da06a80b708c2875cadaafee77e9700ea35cf23882c SHA512 de4e2d3d5fbe610a6ff4c42ab006ace803d2d90fe55a9c73262c4cda4e8bd352e010c6dcc8652bf439ae220b3090a8792eab55f70e296f62992cdb8ea23a6212 WHIRLPOOL 777b37e59d5a4b42a51cf217d0f4f7b1c860d0f506582856b1cd4d45de2da5adc01195306e32b40dfc7c6a4cebf87438bc4bb741f56d0b7706ea1ada84ab3bb7
 DIST vala-0.39.7.tar.xz 3311764 SHA256 a54ec96125fdb63dbf96a8a3a65df41fdd88a617c1354088b5e10f8f0c89914d SHA512 5a801ed93af1cbe6c4739f6ed114ba7d598a537983b34f0e288304919d890f83e2f8658f1aa019670162382ec47fc4489e0aec2187b00ee3f6ddd494e0eb2068 WHIRLPOOL ff8950bd857ced4b408961930b049acf025b8249ee1a3ee76146d8fdc57e99acee0150636542794f7dc393afef452b040d2cb7ac0ebd7e3ecd9668a2cd761ead
+DIST vala-0.40.4.tar.xz 3346216 SHA256 379354a2a2f7ee5c4d6e0f5e88b0e32620dcd5f51972baf6d90d9f18eb689198 SHA512 e8d2b02981e2a14ac1d336fa2e8d8d6ae5c207ad8991abfab135d06b2cef823966cca21bb7881257b80b7429738d11d9639b10b8a7031cef8f14f5d72b631af7 WHIRLPOOL 8c8ac76a62bf89603eccc8c3712e68e1af544b7f2401400867e28b19ac8bc7c02d6ab3e6fc4129095c0ab22cada3edfe52bd0d72ed849db5df6b46a06c3ee165
diff --git a/dev-libs/vala-common/vala-common-0.40.4.ebuild b/dev-libs/vala-common/vala-common-0.40.4.ebuild
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..91475023
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dev-libs/vala-common/vala-common-0.40.4.ebuild
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+# Copyright 1999-2018 Gentoo Foundation
+# Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2
+
+EAPI=6
+GNOME_ORG_MODULE="vala"
+
+inherit gnome.org
+
+DESCRIPTION="Build infrastructure for packages that use Vala"
+HOMEPAGE="https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Vala"
+
+LICENSE="LGPL-2.1"
+SLOT="0"
+KEYWORDS="~alpha ~amd64 ~arm ~arm64 ~hppa ~ia64 ~mips ~ppc ~ppc64 ~s390 ~sh ~sparc ~x86 ~amd64-fbsd ~x86-fbsd ~amd64-linux ~arm-linux ~x86-linux ~x64-macos ~x64-solaris"
+IUSE=""
+
+# Previously ${PN} was part of dev-lang/vala
+RDEPEND="
+	!<dev-lang/vala-0.10.4-r2
+	!<dev-lang/vala-0.12.1-r1:0.12
+	!<dev-lang/vala-0.14.2-r2:0.14
+	!<dev-lang/vala-0.16.1-r2:0.16
+	!<dev-lang/vala-0.17.5:0.18
+"
+DEPEND=""
+
+src_configure() { :; }
+
+src_compile() { :; }
+
+src_install() {
+	insinto /usr/share/aclocal
+	doins vala.m4 vapigen/vapigen.m4
+	insinto /usr/share/vala
+	doins vapigen/Makefile.vapigen
+}
+
+pkg_postinst() {
+	# Hack to prevent alternatives_auto_makesym in previously installed
+	# dev-lang/vala's pkg_postrm from overwriting vala-common's files
+	if has_version '<dev-lang/vala-0.10.4-r2:0.10' && [[ -f "${EROOT}usr/share/aclocal/vala-0-10.m4" ]]; then
+		ebegin "Removing old vala-0.10 macros"
+		rm "${EROOT}usr/share/aclocal/vala-0-10.m4" &> /dev/null
+		eend $?
+	fi
+	if has_version '<dev-lang/vala-0.12.1-r1:0.12' && [[ -f "${EROOT}usr/share/aclocal/vala-0-12.m4" ]]; then
+		ebegin "Removing old vala-0.12 macros"
+		rm "${EROOT}usr/share/aclocal/vala-0-12.m4" &> /dev/null
+		eend $?
+	fi
+	if has_version '<dev-lang/vala-0.14.2-r2:0.14' && [[ -f "${EROOT}usr/share/aclocal/vala-0-14.m4" ]]; then
+		ebegin "Removing old vala-0.14 macros"
+		rm "${EROOT}usr/share/aclocal/vala-0-14.m4" &> /dev/null
+		eend $?
+	fi
+	if has_version '<dev-lang/vala-0.16.1-r2:0.16' && [[ -f "${EROOT}usr/share/aclocal/vala-0-16.m4" ]]; then
+		ebegin "Removing old vala-0.16 macros"
+		rm "${EROOT}usr/share/aclocal/vala-0-14.m4" &> /dev/null
+		eend $?
+		if [[ -f "${EROOT}usr/share/vala-0.16/Makefile.vapigen" ]]; then
+			ebegin "Removing old vala-0.16 makefile template"
+			rm "${EROOT}usr/share/vala-0.16/Makefile.vapigen" &> /dev/null
+			eend $?
+		fi
+	fi
+	if has_version '<dev-lang/vala-0.17.5:0.18' && [[ -f "${EROOT}usr/share/aclocal/vala-0-18.m4" ]]; then
+		ebegin "Removing old vala-0.18 macros"
+		rm "${EROOT}usr/share/aclocal/vala-0-12.m4" &> /dev/null
+		eend $?
+		if [[ -f "${EROOT}usr/share/vala-0.18/Makefile.vapigen" ]]; then
+			ebegin "Removing old vala-0.18 makefile template"
+			rm "${EROOT}usr/share/vala-0.18/Makefile.vapigen" &> /dev/null
+			eend $?
+		fi
+	fi
+}