Yi syllable Hmie

It is a Liangshan Yi syllable sign, romanized “hmie.” Nuosu is the self-name of Liangshan Yi speakers. In the standardized Yi script, each character represents a spoken syllable; signs join to write words and sentences. The standalone sign identifies a syllable, while its meaning in a word depends on context.

Traditional Yi writing used signs for words or ideas, and local traditions differed in their glyphs and inventories. Bimo—Yi ritual specialists—passed down texts for religious practice, medicine, and family genealogies; these traditions were not one shared everyday script across villages. The earliest surviving inscription is on a bronze bell dated 1485. One tradition credits a person called Aki with devising the script during the Tang dynasty (618–907); that story does not date ꂖ itself.

The modern Liangshan standard adapted older Yi writing into a syllabary, a system in which signs represent spoken syllables. A Latin-letter scheme for the dialect appeared in 1956; the standardized Yi script was devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980 to improve literacy. This standard represents Liangshan Yi, not every Yi language or local writing tradition.