What ꊳ means
It is a syllable sign in Liangshan Yi writing. The Yi syllabary is a set of signs that each represent a syllable; this standardized form writes Nuosu, a Yi language spoken in Liangshan. The Latin spelling label is ciex; its final x marks the secondary-high tone, a pitch category, rather than an English x sound. The label alone does not give you a safe English translation.
How has Yi script changed?
The Liangshan standard grew from a broader regional writing tradition. Yi writing had varied local forms, used especially by village priests to preserve texts on religion, ritual practice, medicine, and family lineages. The earliest surviving dated example of Yi writing is an inscription on a Yi-and-Chinese bronze bell from 1485; the bell’s date does not tell us when this particular syllable first appeared.
A standardized Liangshan form was devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980 to support literacy in Nuosu. Its signs are not universal substitutes for older regional forms, which can differ in glyph shape, writing direction, sound, and meaning.
How do I type ꊳ?
Use a Liangshan Yi phonetic keyboard and enter ciex. Choose ꊳ from the Yi syllable candidates; the final x marks its tone. A plain Latin keyboard enters the letters. In an editor with Unicode hex entry, enter A2B3 and run that editor’s conversion command.
A sign for written Nuosu; it fits Yi-language text or discussion of Yi writing.
Alone, it gives no safe whole-word translation.
What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readingsDon't confuse it with
4Questions people ask
1Why does ꊳ show as a box?
Your font may not include Yi syllable glyphs. Use a font with Yi Syllables coverage; the text character remains ꊳ even when the current font cannot draw it.
How to type ꊳ
ꊳ\A2B3Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.