Yi Syllable Ndux

It is the Nuosu syllable ndux, used in written text.

ꅣ belongs to the standardized Liangshan Yi script, also called Nuosu writing. In the Latin-letter spelling ndux, final x marks a mid-high tone; it is not a consonant. One Yi syllable can stand for different words, so its meaning comes from the surrounding Yi text.

How did the Liangshan Yi script develop?

It grew from older local Yi writing traditions.

Older Yi writing served practical and ceremonial purposes: religious, magical, medical, and genealogical texts were passed down by religious specialists. A 2015 study records Nuosu manuscripts still used in ceremonies by bimo, ritual specialists. The earliest surviving monumental example of Yi writing is a bronze bell dated 1485.

Older forms varied in glyphs, inventories, and writing direction. The standardized Liangshan form was devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980. It grew from these varied traditions and serves Liangshan Yi, not every Yi dialect; the exact beginnings of the wider tradition remain uncertain.

A box is a font problem, not a new character.

Standardized Yi writing represents Liangshan Yi; it does not give every Yi dialect the same glyph inventory. Someone familiar with another Yi writing tradition may not recognize this syllable mapping.

Yi characters are drawn by the installed font. If ꅣ appears as an empty box or replacement mark, the font lacks support; the character itself has not changed. Read it in context once the glyph displays.