Yi syllable Bbuop

Enter bbuop in a Nuosu (Liangshan Yi) input method, then select ꁤ.

The standard Latin-letter spelling records each part: bb is the initial, uo the vowel, and final p marks low-falling tone rather than an extra consonant.

Where does this Yi syllable come from?

ꁤ belongs to a Yi writing tradition whose origin remains disputed. The earliest securely dated Yi inscriptions and manuscripts date to the fifteenth century or later; variant forms were used in Yi communities during the Ming dynasty. Older forms differed by region and lineage.

Older Yi forms served practical and ritual purposes. Bimo, hereditary ritual specialists, used manuscripts for funerals, exorcism, divination, and genealogies; Yi writing also appeared on paper, stone, wood, bronze, and leather. ꁤ belongs to the later standardized syllabary in this writing tradition.

Why was Liangshan Yi standardized?

The standard was created to support literacy in Liangshan Yi. Traditional Yi writing had many local glyph variants and did not map neatly to modern phonetics, so a standardized form was devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980. Its syllable names use Liangshan romanization, the Latin-letter spelling system for the language; bbuop records the initial, vowel, and tone.

This standard is for Liangshan Yi, not a unified writing system for every Yi variety.