Yi syllable Nbop

On Windows, enter nbop in Yi input and select ꂄ. Microsoft documents this candidate-selection flow as of 2024-06-20; press Enter or Space to accept the choice.

What does ꂄ mean?

It writes nbop, one syllable; context supplies its word meaning.

The standard spells it in Latin letters; its final p marks a low-falling tone. Some scholars connect inscriptions on pottery, stone, and bronze to early Yi writing, though their dates remain uncertain. The oldest reliably dated examples are inscriptions on Chenghua-era bells from the 15th century. A Nuosu origin story credits the sage Aki, placed in the Tang era, with bringing writing; that is a cultural account, not a dated record of authorship.

Yi writing carried religious, ritual, medical, historical, and magical knowledge, often preserved through bimo, Yi ritual specialists whose priestly lineages passed texts on. Local traditions differ in glyph shapes and sound values. The standardized Liangshan form was devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980 to support literacy; it formalized one Yi tradition rather than creating writing from scratch or covering every Yi variety. The system also has shorter radical signs based on Yi syllable shapes and ꀕ, which marks a repeated preceding syllable.