Yi Syllable Vo

It writes the Nuosu Yi syllable romanized “vo.”

The Liangshan Yi syllabary assigns one character to each spoken syllable. In its Latin-letter transcription, “vo” starts with the v in “voice” and ends with the o in “more,” held at a steady mid-level pitch. The lack of a final t, p or x marks that tone; those letters at the end mark other tones.

In Nuosu, this syllable can also be the word “snow.” In a longer sentence, surrounding words clarify which reading fits.

How was the Yi script standardized?

The modern standard grew from older, regionally varied Yi writing.

Traditional Yi writing, historically called Cuan or Wei, was not one unified script: local traditions differed in the characters they used, the shapes they gave them and the direction of writing. Village priests passed down manuscripts for religious, magical, medical and family-history writing, rather than everyday communication between communities. One origin tradition credits Aki with devising the script during the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE); the oldest surviving example cited is a bronze-bell inscription dated 1485.

The Liangshan standard was devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980 to support literacy. It adapted traditional forms into signs for Liangshan Yi syllables, also called Nuosu; it was not designed for every Yi variety. The standard usually runs left to right and shares punctuation with written Chinese.