Yi syllable dix

It is a syllable sign, not a word on its own.

In Liangshan romanization—a Latin-letter way to write Yi sounds—“dix” names this syllable. Its final x marks the secondary-high tone, a pitch distinction in Yi; it is not an English gloss. The word meaning comes from the surrounding Yi text.

A bronze-bell inscription from 1485 is the earliest securely dated surviving example of Yi writing. This character belongs to a later standardized syllabary.

Why was Yi writing standardized?

The modern standard was designed to support literacy in Liangshan Yi.

Older Yi writing had regional forms and appeared in religious, magical, medical, and family-history texts passed on by bimo, Yi ritual specialists. The Liangshan standard was devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980 as a phonetic syllabary. It represents one regional standard, not every Yi variety.

The standard appears in literacy, rural-life, and arithmetic textbooks, as well as literature and the Liangshan Daily newspaper.

How does ꄁ relate to older Yi writing?

It belongs to the standardized Liangshan form of the Yi writing tradition.

Older Yi writing had locally varied forms; this syllabary standardizes the Liangshan branch. Traditional Yi writing is distinct from Han writing, not a set of Han characters with different readings. The visible shape comes from the installed font, so a device without Yi font coverage may not display it correctly.