Yi Syllable Top

A lone ꄬ cannot be translated reliably without context. The standardized Liangshan romanization spells the syllable top; its final p marks low-falling tone, not an English consonant. A Yi syllable contributes to a word, so surrounding syllables determine what a passage means.

Earlier Yi writing, historically called Cuan or Wei, was a locally varied sign system rather than this standardized syllabary. A tradition attributes its creation to Aki during the Tang dynasty (618–907); the earliest surviving Yi inscription is on a bronze bell dated 1485. Village bimo—Yi ritual specialists—passed down manuscripts for religious, magical, medical, and genealogical writing, rather than a common everyday written standard.

The modern syllabary grew from this older writing tradition and was standardized for Liangshan Yi: its romanization came in 1956, and the script was devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980. It then appeared in literacy textbooks, rural and arithmetic handbooks, literature, and the newspaper Liangshan Daily. This standard writes Liangshan Yi, also called Nuosu, not every Yi variety.