Yi syllable ngat

In Nuosu Yi, ꉠ means “my”; ꉠꉠ emphasizes “I myself.”

ꉠ is romanized as ngat, a syllable spoken with a high tone. ꉠꀁꑳ means “my brother”; doubled before a predicate, ꉠꉠ marks the emphatic subject in ꉠꉠꑵꉙꑵ, “I myself am singing.” The Yi script’s repetition carries grammar here.

The modern standard grew from older Yi traditions

Yi writing has several regional traditions, not one uniform script. Among the surviving monuments is a bilingual Yi-and-Chinese bronze bell inscription dated 1485; manuscripts preserve older local forms. Traditional Yi writing served religious, magical, medical, and genealogical works, often copied through village priest lineages. The script’s origin remains debated.

A modern standard was devised in 1974 to improve literacy and officially promulgated in 1980 for the Liangshan dialect. It selected a teachable syllabary—a set of signs for spoken syllables—from older Yi traditions, so it represents one branch rather than every Yi variety. Older Yi writing, often called Classical Yi, is historically connected to the modern standard; its signs are distinct from Chinese characters. A bilingual monument shows both scripts together, not that they are the same script.