Yi syllable ddat

It represents one Nuosu syllable, not one fixed English word. One Nuosu grammar glosses ddat as “bear”; context tells whether that translation fits.

Traditional Yi writing varied by region and used signs for words or ideas. Village bimo (ritual specialists) passed religious, magical, medical, and family-history manuscripts across generations. The earliest surviving inscription is on a bronze bell dated 1485; paper texts survive from around 1500. Claims for Yi writing in China's Western Han era remain disputed. The Liangshan syllabary was standardized from this tradition in 1974 and promulgated in 1980 to improve literacy in Nuosu, not every Yi variety.