Yi Syllable Zzux

It spells one Liangshan Yi syllable, not a whole word.

In Yi Pinyin, zzux is said as one beat: begin with a voiced “dz” sound, like the end of English “adze” moved to the start, then say “oo” as in “boot” with the pitch rising. The final x marks that tone; it is not another consonant.

Inside Yi writing, ꋢ supplies one sound-and-tone unit. Read the complete word around it for a meaning; alone, it does not give a whole-word translation.

How did the Yi script develop?

It grew through local traditions before one Liangshan form was standardized.

One widely told origin story credits Aki with devising the traditional Yi script during the Tang dynasty. This is an origin tradition, not a secure creation date for every Yi writing system.

The oldest securely dated surviving example is a 1485 inscription on a bronze bell in Guizhou; undated texts may be older. For centuries, village bimo ritual priests kept traditional texts for ceremonies, divination, medicine, family history, scripture, and legend. The standardized Liangshan syllabary was devised in 1974 and officially promulgated in 1980. It regularized one regional Yi tradition for writing that variety; other Yi languages and local scripts were not merged into it.

How do I type ꋢ?

With the SIL Yi desktop keyboard, type the Yi Pinyin spelling zzux, then press Space to enter ꋢ.

On the SIL Yi mobile keyboard, choose zz for the initial consonant, then ux for the vowel and tone.

An empty square means the active font lacks the character. Use one with Yi coverage, such as Noto Sans Yi or Nuosu SIL.