Yi syllable ssex

It writes a Nuosu syllable romanized as “ssex.”

In the standardized Yi script used for Nuosu, Liangshan romanization records pronunciation in Latin letters; the final x in “ssex” marks the secondary-high tone, a pitch pattern.

That spelling is a pronunciation label, not the English word “sex” or a translation. In Yi text, surrounding syllables show how ꌹ fits a word; alone in unrelated chat, ask the sender what they meant.

What was Yi writing used for?

It carried ritual, medical, and family records before public standardization.

Inscriptions on stone, bronze, pottery, and bone are claimed from the Western Han period. The earliest surviving dated monuments are from the fifteenth century; paper and sheepskin texts survive from around 1500.

Bimo priests—ritual specialists—copied and taught texts for religious and magical practice, medicine, and genealogy. From the 1950s to early 1980s, the Liangshan standard selected older Northern Yi forms and widened the script’s use to books, newspapers, official documents, and literature.

Yi writing traditions differ in their characters, pronunciations, tones, punctuation, and reading practices. The standardized Liangshan form is one Northern Yi tradition, not a replacement for every Yi variety. Its script is independent of Chinese characters and nearby alphabetic scripts.

How can I type ꌹ?

Use an input layout for Yi syllables.

A Yi Syllables layout targets these syllable characters; a Yi Radicals layout targets a separate set of characters.

If the character appears as a box, the active font lacks this Yi glyph. Choose a font with Yi Syllables coverage; its exact shape can vary by font.