Yi Syllable Nbo

It writes one Liangshan Yi syllable, romanized as “nbo.”

The standard Liangshan Yi romanization spells syllables with Latin letters. A final t, p, or x marks another tone; “nbo” has none, so it marks a level tone at mid pitch.

The modern syllabary grew from older Yi writing, known in traditions as Cuan or Wei. Local scripts used signs for words or ideas and varied by community; village priests used them for religious, magical, medical, and family-history texts. The earliest surviving example is a bronze-bell inscription dated 1485. One tradition credits Aki with creating the script during the Tang dynasty. The Liangshan standard was devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980; it represents that dialect alone.