Yi Syllable Shur

ꎿ is one syllable in standardized Liangshan Nuosu, a variety of Yi. A Nuosu lexical database published in 2022 glosses it as “sea.” In ordinary writing, it contributes a syllable to a word; that language-specific gloss does not make it a universal symbol for the ocean.

Text symbol

Also called: shur
Search it as: Nuosu · Yi script · Nuosu syllable · Yi keyboard · Nuosu sea
Shows up in: Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws

What ꎿ means

ꎿ represents one syllable in standardized Nuosu Yi writing.

Its standard Latin-script spelling is shur, a label for the syllable rather than a translation. In the Nuosu syllabary, each character represents a spoken syllable. The word and sentence around it establish how that syllable functions.

How did this character become part of Yi writing?

It belongs to a standard built from older, local Yi traditions. The earliest securely dated surviving Yi inscription cited in the Unicode Standard is on a bronze bell from 1485. Before standardization, bimo—Yi ritual specialists—used local writing traditions in religious, magical, medical, and genealogical manuscripts.

The Liangshan standard dates to 1974 and was officially promulgated in 1980. It drew on Northern Yi forms and established a consistent phonetic syllabary for schools and print. ꎿ belongs to this standardized Nuosu tradition; other regional Yi writing traditions may use different forms and conventions.

It signals Nuosu/Yi writing; in a longer passage, it functions as part of a word.

Outside Yi text, the gloss “sea” is not a safe stand-alone reading.