Yi Syllable Nu

It writes one Nuosu syllable, transcribed as nu.

The Latin-letter transcription nu approximates “noo”; it labels the syllable rather than translating it. The surrounding Nuosu word or sentence supplies a translation. If it arrives alone, treat it as a fragment of Yi-script text and ask for the surrounding words.

Yi writing predates the modern standard. Possible early evidence includes inscriptions dated 206 BC–AD 9; the oldest securely dated surviving example of traditional Yi writing is a bronze bell from 1485. Bimo, Yi religious specialists, used traditional writing for religious, magical, medical, and family-history texts.

Why does Yi writing have different scripts?

Older Yi writing grew into regional traditions with different signs and readings.

Traditional Yi scripts vary in the signs they use, their shapes and orientation, and how they are read. Some regional forms were not fully mutually intelligible. The Liangshan standard containing ꆓ is specifically for Nuosu; other Yi traditions have their own repertoires and readings.

The Liangshan standard’s historical connection is to Classical Yi writing, an older tradition, and it draws on Northern Yi forms. It was devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980 for public literacy. Older Yi writing also includes signs for ideas as well as syllables; scholars debate how to classify some forms, and the ideographic tradition appears distinct from Han Chinese characters rather than borrowed from them.