Han character 𮆳

Sawndip is traditional square-character writing for Zhuang. Zhuang is a language spoken mainly in southern China. The system borrowed Han characters for sound or meaning and formed new ones by adapting or combining their parts. A 2017 account describes it as unstandardized: a spoken syllable could have several written forms across manuscripts, so read an isolated character in its text context.

Accounts of Zhuang writing trace carved marks among Zhuang ancestors to the Shang and Zhou periods, followed by more pictorial signs in the Warring States. By the Tang dynasty, scholars adapted Han components to write Zhuang words; a Song-dynasty record describes the script in local documents. Its uses included religious texts, songs, stories, contracts, inscriptions, family records, and place names.