Yi Syllable Mi

It writes the Nuosu Yi syllable mi.

Nuosu, also called Liangshan Yi, is a Yi language; its standardized script gives each syllable a character. The standard romanization “mi” names this syllable’s consonant-and-vowel sound, not an English translation. Read it with nearby characters for the full word or sentence.

How did the Yi syllabary develop?

It belongs to a modern standard built from older Yi writing.

Traditional Yi writing had many local forms, often copied by bimo—village ritual specialists—for religious, magical, medical, and family-history texts. A widespread tradition credits Aki with devising the older script during the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE); the earliest surviving inscription is on a bronze bell dated 1485.

A standard for the Liangshan dialect was devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980. It drew on older Liangshan forms and made left-to-right writing the norm. This syllabary is for the Nuosu variety, not every Yi language or local script.

What if someone sends ꂰ alone?

A lone ꂰ gives you no full sentence to read.

One character can represent a spoken syllable, but without context you cannot tell whether it was a word, a fragment, or a typo. If it arrives alone in an unrelated chat, ask what Yi text or language it came from.