Yi script

The Yi scripts (Yi: ꆈꌠꁱꂷ, romanized: nuosu bburma; Chinese: 彝文; pinyin: Yíwén) are two scripts used to write the Yi languages; Classical Yi (an ideographic script), and the later Yi syllabary. This is to be distinguished from romanized Yi (Chinese: 彝文罗马拼音; pinyin: 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 Hanyu Pinyin system and used to romanize another syllabary based on a subset of simplified Han ideograms). There was also the alphasyllabary (or abugida) devised by Sam Pollard, the Pollard script for the Miao language spoken in Yunnan province, which he adapted for the Nasu language as well. Present day traditional Yi writing can be sub-divided into five main varieties, namely, Nuosu (the prestige form of the Yi language centred on the Liangshan area), Nasu (including the Wusa), Nisu (Southern Yi), Sani and Azhe.