Yi script

Yi
nuosu bburma or Yi script
Script type
Syllabary in modern form;
Logographic in archaic variations
Time period
Since at least 15th century (earliest attestation) to present, syllabic version established in 1974
DirectionLeft-to-right Edit this on Wikidata
Languagesvarious Yi languages
Related scripts
Parent systems
ISO 15924
ISO 15924Yiii (460), ​Yi
Unicode
Unicode alias
Yi
 This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

The Yi scripts (Yi: ꆈꌠꁱꂷ, romanized: nuosu bburma, [nɔ̄sβ̩ bβ̠̩mā]; Chinese: 彝文; pinyin: Yí wén) are two scripts used to write the Yi languages; Classical Yi (an ideogram script), and the later Yi syllabary. The script is historically known in Chinese as Cuan Wen (Chinese: 爨文; pinyin: Cuàn wén) or Wei Shu (simplified Chinese: 韪书; traditional Chinese: 韙書; pinyin: Wéi shū) and various other names (夷字、倮語、倮倮文、畢摩文), among them "tadpole writing" (蝌蚪文).[1]

This is to be distinguished from romanized Yi (彝文羅馬拼音 Yíwén Luómǎ pīnyīn) which was a system (or systems) invented by missionaries and intermittently used afterwards by some government institutions (and still used outside Sichuan province for non-Nuosu Yi languages, but adapted from the standard Han Pinyin system and used to romanize another syllabary based on a subset of simplified Han ideograms).[2][3] There was also the alphasyllabary (or abugida) devised by Sam Pollard, the Pollard script for the Miao language spoken in the Yunnan province, which he adapted for the Nasu language as well.[4] Present day traditional Yi writing can be sub-divided into five main varieties (Huáng Jiànmíng 1993); Nuosu (the prestige form of the Yi language centred on the Liangshan area), Nasu (including the Wusa), Nisu (Southern Yi), Sani (撒尼) and Azhe (阿哲).[5][6]

  1. ^ 中国少数民族文化遗产集粹 (in Chinese), 2006, p. 9, ... 汉文史料中分别称彝文为"夷字"、"爨文"、"韪书"、"蝌蚪文"、"倮倮文"、"毕摩文"等,中华人民共和国成立后随族称的规范,统称为彝族文字,简称为彝文。
  2. ^ 秦和平 基督宗教在西南民族地区的传播史 (in Chinese), 2003, p. 49, 另外,基督教之所以能够传播于民族地区,民族文字的创制及使用起到关键作用。据调查,传教士创制的文字有苗文、摆夷(傣)文、傈僳文、怒文、景颇文、佤文、彝文、拉祜文等等。它们利用罗马拼音字母系统对该民族语言或文字加以注音所产生,...
  3. ^ Benoît Vermander (2007), L'enclos à moutons: un village nuosu au sud-ouest de la Chine (in French), p. 8, Si les Nuosu vivent sur le territoire chinois, s'ils sont citoyens chinois et gouvernés de fait par le Parti-État chinois, l'univers culturel dans lequel ... Par ailleurs, un système de transcription formé sur l'alphabet latin a été également mis au point ...
  4. ^ Annual report of the American Bible Society American Bible Society 1949, Volume 133, p 248. "In the Nasu New Testament the so-called "Pollard" Script is used. Its alphabet was invented by the late Mr. Pollard, a British missionary, who worked in Yunnan and Kweichow Provinces."
  5. ^ Halina Wasilewska in ed. Nathan Hill Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages IV 2012 Page 449 "... the writing as the basis and which corresponds to the classification of the Yi languages, present day traditional Yi writing can be sub-divided into five main varieties (Huáng Jiànmíng 1993), i.e. the Nuosu, Nasu, Nisu, Sani and Azhe varieties."
  6. ^ 黄建明 Huáng Jiànmíng 彝族古籍文献概要 (1993). "Yizu guji wenxian gaiyao" [Outline of classical literature of Yi nationality]. Yunnan minzu chubanshe.