Yi Syllable Hxi

It writes one Nuosu syllable in Liangshan Yi.

Nuosu writing joins syllables into words, so this glyph supplies one sound unit. Read the complete Nuosu word or sentence to understand its meaning.

Where did ꉈ come from?

The Liangshan standard grew from older local Yi scripts.

Some much older stone, bronze, pottery, and bone inscriptions have been proposed as Yi writing, but their identification remains disputed. The earliest securely dated surviving example is a bronze-bell inscription from 1485; paper and sheepskin texts are attested around 1500.

Earlier Yi traditions used ideographic signs—characters representing words or ideas—and varied by community. Bimo, Yi ritual specialists, passed on texts for religious, magical, medical, and genealogical use. A Liangshan standard was devised in 1974 and promulgated in 1980 to support literacy. It represents Nuosu, the Liangshan dialect, not every Yi language or writing tradition.

How do I type ꉈ?

Use a Yi input method, then choose its character candidate.

On Windows, add Yi in the language settings, switch to the Yi IME, type hxi, and select ꉈ from the candidates. Microsoft’s instructions, updated 2024-06-20, say Enter or Space accepts the first suggestion. Other systems need a Yi-aware keyboard or input method.

The glyph is drawn by the reading font. Without Yi Syllables support, it may appear as a box or fallback glyph, though the text still contains ꉈ.