Yi syllable Yie

Use a Yi syllable keyboard or Unicode hexadecimal input.

SIL’s Nuosu keyboard includes the Yi Syllables block that contains ꑷ. If your operating system supports hexadecimal Unicode entry, enter A477; the shortcut varies by system.

What does ꑷ mean?

It marks one syllable in Yi writing.

Yi words are written with syllable signs. A lone ꑷ gives you one syllable, while the surrounding word and sentence supply its meaning; it is not a complete English message.

Older Yi writing traditions varied in their signs and writing direction. Village priests used traditional writing for religious, magical, medical and genealogical texts. An early surviving example is a bronze-bell inscription dated 1485; that dates the script's record, not ꑷ itself. The Liangshan standard, devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980, adapted a tradition linked to Classical Yi for literacy, textbooks, literature and newspapers. It standardized one variety, not every Yi language. Traditional Yi ideographs do not appear to derive directly from Han Chinese characters.

Why can ꑷ look missing?

Your font probably lacks Yi Syllables support.

ꑷ is text, and the font must include Yi syllables for software to draw it. Nuosu SIL is one font with Yi coverage; another Yi-capable font may work too.

Standardized Liangshan Yi is written from left to right. Older Yi traditions used other directions, so an older sample may look different without being a rendering of this exact modern form.