Yi

Note: These pages date back to the early 2000's, are incomplete, and are no longer maintained. These pages refer to "Yi" and "Liangshan Yi" which are the Chinese designations for the people and their language, but the name "Nuosu" is now preferred. See also my pages on the Sani Yi script. [AW 2017-12-16]

My Yi Pages

• 600 Phrases in the Liangshan Yi Dialect : A course of twenty-seven lessons in the colloquial Liangshan Yi dialect
• History and Description of the Yi Script : History and Description of the Yi Script.
• The Yi People and Language : About the Yi people and their language.
• The Yi Phonetic Alphabet : Description of the scheme for representing the Liangshan Yi dialect phonetically using the Latin alphabet.
• Unicode Encoding of the Yi Script : Overview of the encoding of the Liangshan Yi script in Unicode, and musings on the possible approachs to the encoding of the traditional Yi script.
• Dictionary of Liangshan Yi : [not yet available]
• Yi Test Page : Some Liangshan folk songs

Yi Data

• Yi Syllable Data [plain UTF-8 text] : IPA and Radical/Stroke data for the YI SYLLABLE block [A000..A48F]

Yi Computer Resources

Unicode Encoding of the Yi Script

The Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646 standards include two blocks that cover the standardised Liangshan Yi script :

• Yi Syllables [A000..A48F] (the 1,164 syllables of the Liangshan Yi script, plus the syllable iteration mark [U+A015])
• Yi Radicals [A490..A4CF] (the 55 "radicals" used to index the syllables of the Liangshan Yi script in dictionaries)

For more information see my Unicode Encoding of the Yi Script page.

Yi Fonts

As the text of these lessons is given in the Yi script, you will need to install an appropriate font, and configure your browser to use the font to display all text in the Yi script. The following fonts support the Liangshan Yi script :

• Code2000 : shareware font from James Kass that covers most Unicode blocks, including Yi Syllables and Yi Radicals. [no longer available]
• Nuosu SIL (formerly called SIL Yi) : Dedicated Yi font, available free from SIL International, that covers the Yi Syllables and Yi Radicals blocks, plus all CJK punctuation used for writing Yi text.
• SimSun-18030 [installed as part of Microsoft's GB18030 Support Package] : GB18030 compliant font that includes glyphs for the Yi Syllables and Yi Radicals blocks, as well as for Tibetan, Mongolian and Chinese. [no longer available]
• Microsoft Yi Baiti : Dedicated Yi font that covers the Yi Syllables and Yi Radicals blocks, included with the Windows operating system (Windows Vista and later).
• Noto Sans Yi : Dedicated Yi font that covers the Yi Syllables and Yi Radicals blocks.

A PUA-encoded font for the Sani Yi script is also available here.

Yi Input Methods

You may use my BabelPad Unicode text editor to input Yi text using an input method based on the Yi Phonetic Alphabet.

You may also use BabelPad or my BabelMap character map utility to look up Yi syllables by Radical and Stroke Count.

Bibliography

Liángshān Yíyŭ Huìhuà Liùbăijù 凉山彝语会话六百句 [ꆃꎭꆈꉙꅇꂷꃘꉐꇬ niep sha nuo hxop ddop ma fut hxa go]. By Li Min and Ma Ming 李民、马明著 [ꇤꇉꃅꇫ、ꂸꐟꉐꈬꑋꁱꌠ ga lo mu gox, map jjiep hxa ggu, nyix bbursu]. Chengdu : Sichuan Minzu Chubanshe 四川民族出版社 [ꌧꍧꊿꋅꄯꒉꅏꅉ syp chuo co cux tep yy ddurx dde], 1981.

Yíwén Jiănzì Bĕn 彝文检字本 [ꆈꌠꁱꂷꎹꏦꋐ nuo su bbur ma shep jie zzit]. Edited by the Sichuan Province Yi Script Working Group and Liangshan Dialect Working Committee [ꌧꍧꌜꆈꌠꁱꂷꌤꃅꋈꌠꆃꎭꍏꅇꂷꁱꂷꌤꃅꊈꑼꉼꁰꄻꄉꌠ syp chuo se nuo su bbur ma syt mu curx su, niep sha zho ddop ma bbur ma syt mu wo yuop hop bburx ddie da su]. Chengdu : Sichuan Minzu Chubanshe 四川民族出版社 [ꌧꍧꊿꋅꄯꒉꅏꅉ syp chuo co cux tep yy ddurx dde], 1984.

BabelStone Home Page