Yi script

The Yi scripts are special ways that the Yi people write their languages. There are two main Yi scripts: Classical Yi, which uses symbols that represent ideas, and Yi syllabary, which uses symbols for sounds. In Chinese, these scripts are sometimes called Cuan Wen or Wei Shu, and they have many other names too, including “tadpole writing.” These scripts are different from romanized Yi, a system created by missionaries that uses the regular letters of the Chinese alphabet to write Yi words. There are also other writing systems created for related languages, such as the Pollard script made for the Miao language. Today, traditional Yi writing mainly includes five different forms used by groups like the Nuosu, Nasu, Nisu, Sani, and Azhe people.

Classical Yi

Classical Yi, also called Traditional Yi, is a special way of writing. Stories say it was created a long time ago during the Tang dynasty by a hero named Aki. The oldest examples we still have today are from the late 1400s and early 1500s, with the first known piece from 1485.

There are many old books written in this script, but most of them do not have dates. This writing originally had about 1,840 symbols. Over time, many different shapes for the same symbols appeared in different places. Because of these differences, we now know of up to 90,000 different symbols from old writings. Even though it works like Chinese writing, the symbols look different and were not taken directly from Chinese.

Languages written with Classical Yi include Nuosu, Nisu, Wusa Nasu, and Mantsi. Traditionally, these writings were made vertically from top to bottom, with columns going from right to left. Some newer versions show the writing horizontally from left to right, turning the symbols.

• A Yi manuscript from 1814.

• A classical Yi manuscript.

Modern Yi

The Modern Yi script is a special way to write made in 1974 by leaders in Sichuan. It became the main way to write the Liangshan dialect of the Nuosu Yi language in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in 1980. This script has 756 main symbols for sounds, with 63 extra symbols for words from Chinese.

Yunnan made its own version of the Yi script in 1987, which has 2,608 symbols. Guizhou also made a book in 1991 for old Yi symbols used in the Nasu area.

This script writes syllables with 43 consonants and 8 vowels, with three tones. Some sounds can be written with extra marks to show different meanings. There is also a special mark to repeat a sound.

Only the Northern Yi (Nuosu) language in Sichuan uses this script officially, but it can also be used for other Yi languages. In Yunnan, a different system based on Chinese Pinyin is sometimes used.

The consonants and vowels have special ways to show different sounds. Tones are shown by adding letters to the end of syllables.

Unicode

Unicode has a block for Modern Yi called Yi syllables. This block includes 1,164 syllables and one special mark. These characters are found between U+A000 and U+A48C. There is also a separate set of 55 radicals used for organizing words in dictionaries. These radicals are located between U+A490 and U+A4C6, and they are known as Yi Radicals. They were added to Unicode in version 3.0.

Classical Yi is an older writing style, similar to Chinese characters but with its own unique history. It has not yet been added to Unicode. In 2007, there was a suggestion to include 88,613 Classical Yi characters. These characters include many different forms from various regions and time periods. Sometimes, symbols from Chinese writing were used, but they might not mean the same thing.