Yi Syllable Py

It is the Nuosu Yi syllable py, not a pictorial emoji. On its own, ꁒ is not a complete English message. In the standardized Liangshan spelling system, py names one syllable: p is the initial, y the vowel, and the absent tone letter marks the midlevel tone.

That syllable can head different words. A 2022 Nuosu word list assigns ꁒ phɿ33 to pain in the mouth, such as from chili; a Nuosu dictionary entry gives it as “vagina.” A 2011 syllabary assigns the same phɿ33 form to an eagle’s or frightened goat’s cry. These are word-level readings, not three emoji meanings; translate the surrounding Yi text.

Traditional Yi writing preserved scripture, ritual, medical, and genealogical knowledge through bimo priests; it was not one intercommunity script. The earliest reliably dated surviving example is the 1485 Chenghua bell inscription. The modern Liangshan standard was devised in 1974 and promulgated in 1980, making a phonetic syllabary for education, books, newspapers, signs, and video subtitles. Traditional Cuan/Wei Yi is apparently not derived from Han ideographs, so ꁒ is Yi writing, not disguised Chinese writing.