Yi syllable by

ꀴ is one written syllable in the standardized Liangshan Yi script. Its label “by” follows the Liangshan romanization, a Latin-letter way to write syllables introduced in 1956. It is a reading label, not a translation; surrounding Yi words show how the syllable fits into a message.

When does Yi writing first appear?

The oldest surviving example named by Unicode is a bronze-bell inscription dated 1485. A widespread tradition credits a figure named Aki with devising the older Yi script during the Tang dynasty (618–907); that is an origin story, not the date of the surviving inscription. Traditional Yi writing, also called Cuan or Wei, had many local forms, and its signs appear not to descend from Chinese Han characters.

Why is ꀴ part of a modern standard?

ꀴ belongs to the standardized form for the Liangshan dialect. Older local forms were handed down by village priests for religious, medical, fortune-telling, and family-history texts, helping preserve different repertoires and glyph shapes.

The Liangshan form was devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980 to improve literacy. It writes the Liangshan dialect; Yi speakers of other dialects may use different local writing traditions.