Grapheme Data for Nuosu Yi written with Latin script
Nuosu Yi (iii) is a Tibeto-Burman language variety spoken by about 3 million people in southern Sichuan Province, China. The graphemes shown here reflect the Yiwen Guifan Fangʼan (The Scheme for Yi Language Standardization. China State Council, 1980). The syllabary and related graphemes are based on the Shypnra dialect as spoken in Xide County. This scheme writes forty three initial consonants, ten vowels, and four tone categories. The detailed phonemic analysis is described in Yiyu Jianzhi (Chen et.al., 1985) and others. Not all phonetic variants are listed here.
The system was based on the Hanyu Pinyin romanization for Mandarin Chinese, in that Nuosu Yi sounds are when possible spelled as in Hanyu Pinyin, e.g., ‹b›, ‹p›, ‹m›, ‹f›, and new graphemes are introduced where Mandarin Chinese lacks a distinction found in Nuosu Yi, e.g. ‹bb›, ‹nb›, ‹hm›.
This phonetic transcription has been adapted for cross-language comparison in Scriptsource, while seeking to respect other published descriptions. For instance, vowels ‹ie, a, uo, ur, yr› are here coded as RTR (retracted tongue root), as a representation of 紧喉 `tight throat’ given in Chinese sources such as Yiyu Jianzhi (Chen et.al. 1985. Beijing: Nationalities Publishing House. Pages 10-12 ) and Xiandai Yiyu (Ding et.al. 1991. Sichuan Nationalities Publishing House. Page 20).
Contributors: Dennis Walters, et al.
Also available for Yi script.
| Grapheme | USV | Phoneme | Status | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| <a> | 0061 | /ä̙/ | expected | axpu ‘grandfather’ | |
| <bb> | 0062 0062 | /b/ | expected | bba ‘bring’ | |
| <b> | 0062 | /p/ | expected | bie ‘dance’ | |
| <ch> | 0063 0068 | /tʂʰ/ | expected | chur ‘autumn’ | |
| <c> | 0063 | /tsʰ/ | expected | ce ‘salt’ | |
| <dd> | 0064 0064 | /d/ | expected | ddur ‘come out’ | |
| <d> | 0064 | /t/ | expected | dep ‘rise’ | |
| <e> | 0065 | /ɤ/ | expected | gge ‘listen’ | Often transcribed /ɯ/. The sound is similar to the Mandarin vowel transcribed [ɤ], hence the use of grapheme ‹e›, in parallel with Hanyu Pinyin. |
| <f> | 0066 | /f/ | expected | fut ‘six’ | |
| <gg> | 0067 0067 | /g/ | expected | ggu ‘nine’ | |
| <g> | 0067 | /k/ | expected | ga ‘give’ | |
| <hl> | 0068 006C | /l̥/ | expected | hlep ‘moon’ | Though some sources use a lateral fricative symbol, there is no audible lateral friction in Nuosu Yi. |
| <hm> | 0068 006D | /m̥/ | expected | hmat ‘instruct’ | |
| <hn> | 0068 006E | /n̥/ | expected | hni ‘red’ | |
| <hx> | 0068 0078 | /h/ | expected | hxie ‘heart’ | |
| <h> | 0068 | /x/ | expected | hat ‘bottom’ | |
| <ie> | 0069 0065 | /e̙/ | expected | ie ‘duck (bird)’ | Sometimes transcribed /ɛ/. |
| <i> | 0069 | /e/ | expected | idix ‘shirt’ | |
| <jj> | 006A 006A | /dʑ/ | expected | jjup ‘track’ | |
| <j> | 006A | /tɕ/ | expected | jy ‘lacquer’ | |
| <k> | 006B | /kʰ/ | expected | ke ‘dog’ | |
| <l> | 006C | /l/ | expected | le ‘ox’ | |
| <mg> | 006D 0067 | /ᵑg/ | expected | mge ‘buckwheat’ | |
| <m> | 006D | /m/ | expected | mo ‘see’ | |
| <nb> | 006E 0062 | /ᵐb/ | expected | nbie ‘resist’ | |
| <nd> | 006E 0064 | /ⁿd/ | expected | ndo ‘drink’ | |
| <ng> | 006E 0067 | /ŋ/ | expected | nge ‘five’ | |
| <nj> | 006E 006A | /ᶮdʑ/ | expected | njot ‘freeze’ | |
| <nr> | 006E 0072 | /ᶯdʐ/ | expected | nrat ‘excellent’ | |
| <ny> | 006E 0079 | /ɲ/ | expected | nyuo ‘eye’ | The Chinese tradition transcribes this sound using /ȵ/. Allophone /hny/ also uses /y/. |
| <nz> | 006E 007A | /ⁿdz/ | expected | nzi ‘edge’ | |
| <n> | 006E | /n/ | expected | na ‘ache’ | |
| <o> | 006F | /o/ | expected | bbo ‘go’ | |
| <p> | 0070 | /pʰ/ | expected | pu ‘price’ | |
| <p> | 0070 | /˨/ = // + // | expected | lip ‘destroy’ | Syllable-final only. |
| <q> | 0071 | /tɕʰ/ | expected | qop ‘companion’ | |
| <rr> | 0072 0072 | /dʐ/ | expected | rry ‘tooth’ | |
| <r> | 0072 | /ʐ/ | expected | ry ‘grass’ | |
| <sh> | 0073 0068 | /ʂ/ | expected | sha ‘poor’ | |
| <ss> | 0073 0073 | /z/ | expected | sso ‘learn’ | |
| <s> | 0073 | /s/ | expected | si ‘choose’ | |
| <t> | 0074 | /tʰ/ | expected | tit ‘here’ | |
| <t> | 0074 | /˥/ | expected | lit ‘lift’ | Syllable-final only. There are two systematic spelling exceptions in this tone category: /u̱˥/ is spelled ‹ut› rather than *‹urt›, and /ɨ̱˥/ is spelled ‹yt› rather than *‹yrt›. This causes no ambiguity, because the lax counterparts of these two vowels do not occur in this tone. |
| <uo> | 0075 006F | /o̙/ | expected | uotie ‘turban’ | |
| <ur> | 0075 0072 | /ʉ̙/ | expected | bbur ‘write’ | Often transcribed /u / |
| <u> | 0075 | /ʉ/ | expected | sup ‘resemble’ | Sometimes pronounced with heavy occlusion, e.g., syllable ‹mu› is commonly articulated as syllabic bilabial nasal. |
| <v> | 0076 | /v/ | expected | vie ‘flower’ | |
| <w> | 0077 | /ɣ/ | expected | wa ‘after’ | Grapheme ‹w› represents syllable initial voiced velar fricative, or if not followed by a vowel, ‹w› romanizes the syllable iteration symbol ꀕ, which does NOT have a consistent phonetic value, but stands for r |
| <x> | 0078 | /ɕ/ | expected | xix ‘which?’ | |
| <x> | 0078 | /˧/ = // + // | common | lixbbo ‘weak’ | Syllable-final only. Some sources transcribe 44 or ˦ for mid-high tone. |
| <yr> | 0079 0072 | /ɨ̙/ | expected | pyr ‘district’ | Often transcribed /ɿ̱/ apical vowel with 'tight throat' |
| <y> | 0079 | /ʑ/ | expected | yi ‘house’ | Grapheme ‹y› is used for both a consonant and a vowel, as in syllable ‹yy› / ʑɨ / ‘water’. |
| <y> | 0079 | /ɨ/ | expected | ly ‘four’ | Often transcribed /ɿ/ apical vowel. |
| <zh> | 007A 0068 | /tʂ/ | expected | zhep ‘bowl’ | |
| <zz> | 007A 007A | /dz/ | expected | zze ‘eat’ | |
| <z> | 007A | /ts/ | expected | zie ‘straight’ | |
| <> | /∅/ | There are 21 syllables that write no initial consonant. | |||
| <> | /˧/ | expected | li ‘neck’ | Syllable-final only. |