Yi syllable Gguox

It is one Nuosu syllable, not a standalone word. In Liangshan Yi text, ꈟ fills one syllable in a word; neighboring text shows which word it belongs to. Its standard spelling in Latin letters is gguox. The final x marks secondary high tone, a pitch pattern, rather than a consonant after the vowel.

When did Yi writing begin?

The oldest surviving inscription is from 1485; no origin date is secure. Traditional Yi writing, known in historical accounts as Cuan or Wei, had many local forms with different glyphs and writing directions. Village priests passed down religious, magical, medical, and genealogical texts through generations; the script did not serve as a common means of communication across communities. One widely repeated tradition credits a person named Aki with creating it during the Tang dynasty (618–907), but this is not a dated origin record. The earliest surviving inscription is on a bronze bell dated 1485.

To improve literacy, a Latin-letter scheme for the Liangshan dialect appeared in 1956. A standardized syllabary based on traditional Liangshan writing was devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980. It represents Liangshan Yi, spoken by Nuosu, not every Yi variety.