Yi Syllable Wex

It writes one syllable; the Yi word around it supplies the meaning. In the Liangshan Yi standard, wex is its Yi-Pinyin spelling; final x marks the secondary-high tone, a pitch pattern in speech.

Surviving examples include bell inscriptions from the 15th century. Some stone and bronze inscriptions are proposed as older Yi writing, but their identification is disputed. Earlier Yi writing was used by bimo, Yi ritual specialists. The Liangshan standard shaped selected local forms into a syllabary, a system in which each sign represents a spoken syllable, for schools, newspapers and everyday writing. It remains historically connected to older Yi scripts, not Han Chinese writing.