Yi syllable chux

ꍱ represents the syllable written chux. The standard Latin-letter spelling uses its final x as a tone marker, not an x sound. That spelling gives the sign's reading, not an English translation; the full Yi word or sentence supplies its meaning. In a syllabary, each sign represents a spoken syllable.

The history of Yi script includes surviving dated monumental inscriptions from the fifteenth century, including a bronze bell in Guizhou dated 1485. Some undated manuscripts may be older.

Earlier regional Yi traditions used many local forms. In classical Yi texts, some characters worked as meaning-bearing signs, or ideographs, and could vary in shape. The standardized Liangshan Yi syllabary represents spoken syllables instead. It was devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980 for Liangshan Yi, also called Nuosu, not every Yi variety.

Where is ꍱ used?

ꍱ belongs in Yi-language writing and character samples. Older Yi manuscripts preserved scripture, legends, history, medicine, astrology, and family genealogies; bimo, Yi ritual specialists, maintained them. The syllable alone does not identify which kind of text it comes from.

Standardized Liangshan Yi appears in literacy books, practical rural texts, arithmetic lessons, official documents, newspapers, and literature, as well as ritual material. The same syllable sign can therefore occur in a classroom text or an inherited manuscript.