Yi Syllable Gut

ꇲ writes a spoken Yi syllable, not a whole English word.

Nuosu is the Liangshan variety of Yi, and its standardized syllabary gives one written sign to each spoken syllable. A Nuosu vocabulary list glosses ꇲ, written in Latin letters as gut, with verbs such as “support,” “provide for,” and “take care of”; another lists “hire” or “employ.” In this spelling, final t marks high-level tone, a pitch pattern, not an English consonant. Read the surrounding Yi word to tell which verb is intended.

How did Yi writing change?

Local writing developed into a literacy standard for one Yi variety.

A widespread origin tradition credits Aki, a legendary figure, with creating Yi writing during the Tang dynasty in China (618–907 CE). A University of Washington edition discusses objects attributed to the Western Han, an early Chinese dynasty, as possible early examples. Unicode identifies a bronze-bell inscription dated 1485 as the earliest surviving example.

Traditional Yi writing had many local forms, with differences in signs and writing direction. Village bimo (Yi ritual specialists) used it mainly for religious, magical, medical, and genealogical texts. The Liangshan syllabary was devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980 to improve literacy in that variety; textbooks and a newspaper used it. It descends from older Yi writing and is intended for Liangshan/Nuosu, not every Yi variety.