Yi syllable Dduox

Enter dduox in a Yi IME, then select ꅁ from its candidates. On Windows, the Yi IME turns the romanized syllable spelling into character candidates; Enter or Space accepts the first suggestion. Microsoft documents this workflow as of 2024-06-20.

Without the IME, use your editor's Unicode insertion tool and enter U+A141; the keystrokes vary by operating system.

What does ꅁ mean on its own?

It is one written syllable; its word supplies the meaning. In standardized Liangshan Yi writing, also called Nuosu, ꅁ represents the syllable spelled dduox in romanization. In Yi Pinyin, its final x marks a secondary-high tone, one of the syllable's pitch categories; the x belongs to the spelling, not the glyph.

Some scholars propose Yi inscriptions on objects from the Western Han (206 BCE–9 CE) as possible early evidence. The earliest surviving paper texts date to around 1500; the earliest securely dated monumental example is an inscription on a bronze bell from 1485.

Traditional Yi writing was mainly preserved by bimo, Yi ritual specialists, in religious, magical, medical, and family-history texts. A standardized Liangshan form was devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980, giving readers and learners a shared written form.

Why might another Yi reader read it differently?

Yi writing varies among regional and local traditions.

The Liangshan standard is one Yi writing tradition: character inventories, shapes, orientations, sound values, and writing direction vary elsewhere. Someone familiar with another local form may not recognize ꅁ in the same way.