What ꌿ means
A Nuosu syllable, written ssup; one Nuosu lexicon glosses it as “barley.” Treat “barley” as a dictionary gloss, not a guaranteed full translation of every message containing ꌿ.
Older regional Yi writing traditions preceded the modern Liangshan standard. A bronze bell inscription dated 1485 is an early securely dated example of Yi writing. Bimo, ritual specialists, used regional scripts for scripture, legend, history, medicine, astrology, and other texts. The modern Liangshan standard was devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980 to represent speech more consistently and support literacy. ꌿ belongs to this standard, which does not cover every Yi variety.
How do I type ꌿ, and why can it look blank?
Enter ssup in a Yi input method, then select ꌿ. Microsoft’s Yi IME guide, updated 2024-06-20, describes selecting Yi, entering the romanized syllable, and choosing the character from a candidate list; for ꌿ, enter ssup.
A blank box means the active font lacks this Yi glyph. Use a font with Yi Syllables coverage; ꌿ is text rendered by a font.
Use ꌿ in Nuosu text or when discussing the Yi script; alone, it gives readers little sentence context.
Do not treat “barley” as a full translation outside its Nuosu context.
What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readingsDon't confuse it with
4Questions people ask
3Why does ꌿ show as a box?
It can. A box means the active font lacks a Yi Syllables glyph; use a font that includes Yi syllables.
How do you pronounce ssup?
The spelling uses Nuosu romanization rather than sound-by-sound Latin letters. Its final p marks a low falling tone: the voice starts low and drops further, rather than adding a separate p sound.
Does ꌿ mean barley in every Yi variety?
No. “Barley” is a gloss for the Nuosu syllable; other Yi traditions use different scripts, so that gloss should not be generalized to them.
How to type ꌿ
ꌿ\A33FCodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.