Yi Radical Tu

It groups Yi syllable signs by a shared stroke element.

Yi writing predates computer encoding by centuries. The earliest reliably dated surviving example is an inscription on a bronze bell from 1485. Before modern standardization, bimo—Yi ritual specialists—copied local scripts for religious, magical, medical, and family-history texts. Guizhou, Liangshan, and Yunnan Sani traditions used different inventories and forms.

The standardized Liangshan inventory was designed in 1974 and officially adopted in 1980. It adapted the component-based indexing approach used in Chinese dictionaries: each Yi radical marks a stroke element shared by syllable signs. The name points to the closest full syllable sign in shape, but ꒨ is an index component, not a syllable to read aloud.

What does ꒨ mean when someone sends it?

Treat it as a Yi script sample unless context says otherwise.

When someone sends ꒨ alone, take it as a sample of Yi writing or a request to identify the sign. Ask what they mean if the surrounding conversation gives no clue.

Readers of standardized Liangshan Yi can recognize its dictionary-indexing role. Other Yi traditions use different local inventories, so this standardized component may not be familiar to readers of Guizhou or Yunnan Sani scripts.