Yi Radical Put

It sorts related Yi syllable signs for dictionary lookup. In standardized Liangshan Yi, ꒞ is a subsidiary form in the radical group headed by ꒜; ꒝ is another form in that group. Each group gathers syllable signs that share a stroke element. “Put” is the standard Latin spelling of the Liangshan Yi syllable whose sign most closely resembles ꒞; it is not a translation or the mark’s word meaning.

Traditional Yi writing comprises varied regional traditions, with different signs and writing directions; its glyphs do not appear to derive from Han characters. Until modern times, village ritual specialists called bimo used local forms for religious, magical, medical, and genealogical texts. One origin story credits Aki with devising about 1,840 signs during the Tang dynasty (618–907); the earliest surviving dated inscription is on a bronze bell from 1485.

The standardized Liangshan form was devised in 1974 and promulgated in 1980 for that variety of Yi. Its dictionary index has 26 main radicals represented by 55 shapes, including subsidiary forms such as ꒞. Modeled on Han dictionary radicals, these signs sort Yi syllables by shared strokes rather than giving them meanings.