What ꍂ means
ꍂ writes the syllable ssy in standardized Liangshan Yi.
Here, ssy is Yi Pinyin, a Latin-letter guide for reading, teaching, and typing, not an English translation. Tone is the syllable’s pitch pattern: a final t, x, or p marks other tones, while no final tone letter marks the mid-level tone. A single syllable cannot tell you which English word a longer Yi word means.
Traditional Yi writing, historically called Cuan or Wei, had many regional forms. One origin story credits Aki with creating it during the Tang dynasty (618–907). Bimo, local ritual specialists, passed down religious, magical, medical, and family-history texts. The earliest surviving example is a bronze-bell inscription dated 1485. A Latin-letter scheme for Liangshan Yi appeared in 1956; a standardized form adapted from older writing was devised in 1974 and promulgated in 1980 to improve literacy.
Why doesn’t ꍂ translate on its own?
It records a syllable; the whole word supplies the meaning.
The standardized syllabary is specifically for Liangshan Yi. Older regional and classical Yi writing traditions differ in their characters, shapes, and writing directions, so this standard reading does not automatically transfer to them.
In Yi text this is ordinary writing; outside that context, a reader needs context to know why it was sent.
Part of the collection
Who writes ꍂ
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What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readingsRead it as ssy; the full Yi word carries the translation.
Don't confuse it with
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Questions people ask
1Why does ꍂ show as a box on some devices?
Not every system ships a font for the Yi Syllables block. Where none is installed, the character shows as an empty box; adding a font such as Noto fixes it. The character itself is still correct and copies correctly.
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How to type or find ꍂ
- Search it as
- Nuosu · Yi Pinyin · Liangshan Yi · Yi script · Yi keyboard · Yi font · 彝文 · 彝语 · yi letter · interlocking letters
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
ꍂ\A342ssy, then press Space; the keyboard inserts the mid-level syllable.Why is ꍂ a box on my screen?
fsymbols draws rare signs with its own fonts, so they show here even where your device has none. An app or website without such a font shows an empty box (□) or a question mark instead. Turn our fonts off to see each sign as your device draws it by itself: a box here means a box in your chats and documents too.
Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.