Yi radical zziet

It helps you look up Yi characters by their shape.

A radical is a sorting key: dictionaries collect characters with a shared graphic feature under it. This is useful when you recognize a written character but do not know how to read it. Here, zziet names the radical; it is not a translation of a message.

The standardized Yi script used for Nuosu in Liangshan, southwestern China, is a syllabary: its ordinary writing signs represent syllables. Dictionary radicals organize those signs for lookup. The indexing method draws on Chinese dictionary practice, but the writing being indexed is Yi.

Yi also has an older manuscript tradition, with regional forms preserved by bimo, Yi ritual specialists. That broader writing tradition should not be confused with the specific dictionary function of this sign.