Yi is the seventh largest minority in China, with the language spoken by 6.1 million people, predominantly in Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and Guangxi provinces. Due to dialectal variability and the lack of a standardized writing system, Yi is still an under-resourced language within China’s linguistic landscape.
Yi-populated regions are divided into six major dialect areas, each with significant internal diversity. Divergences have arisen in the pronunciation, writing, and semantic interpretation of the Yi script. The same character shape can have different sounds, writings, and meanings in different places. To develop the Yi script and ensure it functions effectively in the modern era, it is necessary to organize and standardize it. Therefore, after soliciting opinions from all parties, the State Council in 1980 approved the ‘Yi Script Standardization Scheme’ (彝文规范方案). It specified that the Northern Yi dialect’s Nuosu language (诺苏语) would be the base dialect, with the Xi De (喜德) dialect phonemes as the standard pronunciation. According to the scheme, there would be one Yi character for one sound. There are 1,165 Yi characters in total for core use, consisting of 819 Yi characters plus characters with high tone marks and one replacement sound symbol. Regarding the rules of writing, Yi writing was to be arranged horizontally from left to right, with international standard Arabic numerals and traditional Yi numerals to be used in the Yi writing system (Zhu, 2005).
In November 2010, the Second Terminology Review Meeting of the National Yi Language Terminology Standardization Committee was held in Chengdu. The committee, based on suggestions from the Yi Studies Associations of Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Guangxi provinces and regions, established the pinyin scheme and a standard Yi script that is universally applicable: namely, 5,598 Yi characters were established as the universal standardized Yi script, and the standardized Yi script consists of 49 consonants and 10 vowels (Wang, 2011). However, the process of organizing and promoting the standardization of the Yi script has been complex due to the large regional differences in the Yi script.
Currently, in China, the Yi script and dialects are in a situation where the Yi script of a particular dialect area can generally only be used within its own local Yi language dialect area, and its use beyond the dialect area is still quite challenging. Although there are many homonyms (同音异形) in the various dialects of the Yi language and ancient Yi script, which form the ‘common’ aspect and lay the theoretical foundation for the national standardization and unification of the Yi script, the standardization and unification of the national Yi script can only proceed from the part to the whole. That is, first carrying out local standardization work in each dialect area, and then discussing overall standardization.
Source: Language Atlas of China (2nd edition): Minority languages volume]. Beijing: The Commercial Press.
Source: Jin Dai
Author contributions: Jin Dai—data collection, table visualisation, writing and editing.
References:
Pu, Z. (2012). The Yi ethnic group in China [M]. Yinchuan: Ningxia People’s Publishing House. pp. 23-26.
Wang, C. P. (2011). A review of the development of Yi script information processing technology. People’s Forum. Retrieved from http://www.yizuren.com/yistudy/yxyjjx/37720.html
Zhu W. (2005). Studies on Yi Dialects [M]. Beijing: China Minzu University Press.