Yi syllable Pit

It writes Nuosu Yi pit; final t marks its high, level tone.

The Latin-letter spelling used for Liangshan Yi writes this syllable as pit; its final t marks a high, steady pitch rather than a final consonant. A Nuosu word list glosses the syllable as “vomit”; surrounding words show how it works in a longer passage.

Where did Yi writing come from?

Its local forms varied; the modern syllabary standardizes Liangshan Yi.

Traditional Yi writing had many local forms: glyph shapes, repertoires, and writing directions varied between communities. Village priests used it for religious, magical, medical, and family-lineage texts, often handed down within villages. One tradition credits a figure named Aki with devising an early Yi script during the Tang dynasty (618–907), but that origin story is uncertain. The earliest surviving example is an inscription on a bronze bell dated 1485.

Traditional Yi writing was modeled on Chinese characters, but its signs appear not to descend directly from them. Yi dictionaries also use stroke-based lookup categories—small groups that help readers find characters—modeled on Chinese character indexes. To support literacy, a syllabary for the Liangshan or Northern Yi dialect was devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980. Speakers call their language Nuosu. The standard supported schooling, publishing, signs, and video subtitles, but it was not intended for every Yi dialect.

How do I type ꀸ?

Type pit with a Yi input method, then choose ꀸ.

A Yi Pinyin input method converts the Latin-letter syllable spelling into selectable Yi characters. On the SIL desktop keyboard, press Space after pit; its mobile layout uses one key for the consonant and one for the vowel plus tone.