Yi Syllable Zuox

ꊘ represents the syllable zuox in the standardized Liangshan Yi script. Yi Pinyin writes Yi syllables in Latin letters; the final x marks the secondary-high tone, a pitch pattern, rather than a consonant sound. An English word-level translation depends on the surrounding Yi text.

Traditional Yi writing varied by locality. Bimo priests, Yi religious specialists, copied texts on ritual, magic, medicine, and family histories. Claims linking inscriptions to objects from the Western Han period remain disputed; a bronze-bell inscription from 1485 is identified as the earliest surviving classical Yi example.

The Liangshan standard drew on older Northern Yi forms. Devised in 1974 and promulgated in 1980 to improve literacy, it later appeared in official, newspaper, and literary writing.