Yi syllable po

It is one Nuosu syllable, not a complete word by itself.

In standard Liangshan Yi romanization, this syllable is written po. Say it roughly like “po,” with a puff of air after p and a level pitch. A single Yi syllable can match different words in context, so ꁈ alone has no safe one-word English translation.

The clearest example is ꁈꁧ (pobbo), meaning “flag”: ꁈ supplies its first syllable.

Why was the Yi script made?

The standard aimed to make Yi writing easier to read.

Traditional Yi writing, historically called Cuan or Wei, existed in many local forms. One widespread tradition credits a figure named Aki with devising the script during the Tang dynasty (618–907). Local ritual specialists called bimo used traditional forms mainly for religious, magical, medical, and family-history texts.

The earliest surviving Yi script inscription commonly cited is on a bronze bell dated 1485. A standardized Liangshan form was devised in 1974, tried experimentally from 1975, and officially promulgated in 1980. It drew on older Northern Yi scripts to improve literacy, but represents Liangshan Yi rather than every Yi variety.

How do I type ꁈ?

Choose the po candidate in a Yi input method.

Microsoft's Windows instructions, updated 2024-06-20, describe this flow: select Yi input, type the romanized syllable with English keyboard keys, then select po from the candidates.