Yi script and language

The origins of the Yi script are unknown, though it is believed that it was invented during the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD) by Aki (阿畸 or 阿〇). The earliest known examples of Yi writing date from 1485 but some of the numerous manuscripts and monumental inscriptions in the Yi script might be older than that.

The syllabary was used for religious, magical and medical texts for many centuries mainly by priests, or pimu. Until 1975 there was no standardised Yi script and there was considerable regional variation in how the characters were written.

The standardized Yi script uses a total of 1,165 characters to represent Liangshang Yi. 819 of those characters are used to write all the possible syllable/tone combinations for the three basic tones (high level, mid level and low falling), while another 345 represent syllables with the secondary high tone.

Notable features

Type of writing system: syllabary - the largest syllabary ever to be standardised
Direction of writing: left to right in horizontal lines
Used to write: Yi/Lolo
Each character represents one syllable. Many characters have up to three separate forms to represents the three different tones of spoken Yi.
Yi is also written with the Latin alphabet

Used to write:

Yi, a member of the Loloish branch of the Tibeto-Burman language family spoken by about 4 or 5 million people in the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi.

Yi, which is known as 彝 in Chinese and Lolo in English, has six main dialects: Northern Yi (ꆈꌠ - Nuosu), Western Yi (Lalu), Central Yi (Lolopo), Southern Yi (Nisu), Southeastern Yi (Nasu) and Eastern Yi (Nasu), with limited mutual intelligibility between them.

Northern Yi has the most speakers - about 2 million - and is spoken south-western Sichuan, mainly in the Liangshan Yi Nationality Autonomous Region (凉山彝族自治州), and in Northern Yunnan.

Standardized Liangshan Yi Script

Download this chart (Excel format)

Source: http://www.babelstone.co.uk/Yi/script.html

Sample texts

Sample of written Yi

Translation

Muxhlie : Comrade, where do you come from?
Muxrryr : I am originally from Xide.
Muxhlie : Are you Yi or Han nationality?
Muxrryr : I am Yi.
Muxhlie : Your hometown is a peaceful place I suppose.
Muxrryr : Quiet and peaceful.
Muxhlie : Have you had a good harvest there this year?
Muxrryr : We had a bumper harvest.

Source: http://www.babelstone.co.uk/Yi/lesson_05.html

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Yi

Source: http://unicode.org/udhr/assemblies/first_article_all.txt

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Latin alphabet for Yi (Yi Pinyin)

A method of writing the Liangshang dialect of Yi with the Latin alphabet was proposed in 1956, and a standardised version of the Yi script was devised in 1974. It was used experimentally from 1975, and offically from 1980.

Yi Pinyin