Yi syllable qur

It represents one spoken syllable in the standardized Liangshan Yi script.

qur is its standard romanized spelling. Tone means the pitch pattern of a syllable; in this system, qur has no tone marker and is midlevel. A syllable is a speech unit, not necessarily a whole word, so surrounding Yi text gives its word-level meaning.

How did the Liangshan Yi script develop?

Its modern form grew from older, regionally varied Yi writing.

The oldest surviving example of Yi writing is an inscription on a bronze bell dated 1485. Traditional Yi writing, historically known as Cuan or Wei, was not one unified script: local forms differed in signs and writing direction. Its older signs were ideographic, tied to meanings rather than individual spoken syllables. Village ritual specialists called bimo passed manuscripts down through generations, preserving religious, magical, medical, and genealogical knowledge; some used written passages to cue oral performances at ceremonies.

To improve literacy, a Latin-letter scheme for Liangshan Yi was introduced in 1956. A standardized syllabary based on traditional writing was devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980. A national standard adopted in 1991 underlies the Yi syllables encoded in Unicode; this writing system serves the Liangshan variety alone, not every Yi variety.

How do I type ꐑ?

Use a Yi input method: type qur, then choose the candidate.

Microsoft’s 2024 Windows Yi IME instructions show the workflow: enter romanized phonemes with ordinary Latin keys, then choose a character from the candidate list. For ꐑ, type qur and select the matching syllable.

If ꐑ appears as a hollow box, the active font lacks Yi coverage; use a Yi-capable font. Standardized Yi is generally written left to right, with occasional top-to-bottom writing, and adjacent characters do not join typographically.