Nüshu character sang44

It marks a spoken syllable; nearby text completes the reading.

Nüshu signs represent Jiangyong speech one syllable at a time. Several local words can share a sound, so neighboring characters show which word is meant.

Women shared songs and wedding booklets

Nüshu adapted Chinese-character forms to write Jiangyong speech in Hunan, China. In the mid-19th century, women with little schooling wrote songs, stories and letters. A “third-day” wedding booklet, given three days after marriage, carried wishes from female relatives or sworn sisters to a bride. A county history book from the Daoguang period (1821–1850) describes Nüshu; a mid-19th-century coin is the earliest known inscribed object, with a line calling women worldwide one family.