Yi syllable vop

It writes one Yi syllable; its word meaning comes from context.

“Vop” is a Latin-letter spelling of the syllable, not an English translation. A plant account in Nuosu, a variety of Yi used in Liangshan, uses vop in a local turnip-like tuber’s name; a Yi–Chinese dictionary lists several Chinese translations for ꃱ. In running Yi text, surrounding syllables identify the word.

Alone in a message, read ꃱ as Yi writing, a learning sample, or a character reference; the glyph by itself does not reveal the sender’s intended English word.

When did Yi writing begin?

It developed across local traditions, and its earliest history is debated.

Scholars have proposed inscriptions on stone, bronze, pottery, and bone. A Unicode proposal identifies a bronze bell dated 1485 as the earliest surviving example it cites; the evidence for older examples is uneven.

Traditional Yi writing was used chiefly for religious, divination, healing, and genealogy texts transmitted by bimo, Yi religious specialists. To support literacy, a standardized form for Liangshan Nuosu was devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980.

Why does Yi writing have local forms?

The standard covers Liangshan Yi, not every Yi tradition.

Older forms varied in which signs they used, their shapes and orientation, and the direction they were written. The encoded standard follows one regional tradition; it does not represent every Yi language or writing practice.

The Unicode proposal says traditional Yi ideographs appear not to derive from Han ideographs, the Chinese character tradition. Resemblance alone does not establish a historical link.