Yi syllable Dut

It is a Yi syllable, not a Chinese character. One Nuosu list glosses dut as “step on”; that is one use, not a dependable translation of ꄔ alone.

How did Yi writing develop?

Yi writing grew through local traditions and later standardization. Bimo, Yi ritual specialists, used older forms for religious, magical, medical, and genealogical texts. A bronze-bell inscription from 1485 is cited as the earliest surviving example; earlier origins remain debated.

The Liangshan Yi (Nuosu) standard was devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980 to support literacy. It drew on older forms called Cuan or Wei, represents one Yi language variety, and has ideographs Chinese-influenced in appearance but not directly descended from Han characters.