Yi syllable Vax

ꃫ writes one Nuosu syllable. In Yi Pinyin, vax identifies its initial, vowel, and tone: v is the initial, a the vowel, and final x marks the secondary-high tone. That x belongs to the romanized input spelling; it is not another character appended to ꃫ.

Yi writing has a long, regionally varied tradition. A surviving bronze-bell inscription is dated 1485, and early Yi manuscripts on paper or sheepskin date to around 1500. Traditional local forms served religious, magical, medical, and genealogical writing passed on by village priests. The standardized Liangshan form represented here was devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980 to support literacy; it is one standard, not every Yi language.

What does ꃫ mean when someone sends it?

Alone, ꃫ does not settle what the sender means. In Yi-language text, read it as a syllable within a word and use the surrounding text for the word’s meaning. If it arrives by itself, ask whether the sender meant Yi writing or a reference to the character.

Classical Yi is an older, regionally varied Yi writing tradition. The standardized Liangshan script represents one particular form and was intended for public, literary, and educational writing. Traditional Yi ideographs form a distinct writing tradition from Han Chinese characters.

How do I type ꃫ?

Use Yi Pinyin input for the full syllable vax. In a Yi/Nuosu input method, enter the romanized syllable and choose ꃫ from the candidate list. Microsoft’s Windows Yi IME describes this phoneme-to-character workflow as of 2024-06-20.

ꃫ is one encoded character; typing a base Yi character and then x will not assemble this glyph.