(1) Yi language
The Yi language belongs to the Yi branch of the Tibeto-Burman family of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Other languages ??that also belong to the Yi branch include Hani, Lahu and Lisu in my country. Language, Naxi, Bai, Jinuo, Sankhon, Nusu of the Nu people, Roruo of the Nu people, as well as Akha, Mbisu and Mbi in Thailand, Punoi and Sila in Laos language, Vietnamese Bin language, etc.
One of the main features of Yi languages ??is the increasing monophonic finals and the occurrence of tense glottal sounds. Yi is a relatively typical language with final vowels. Most dialects have vowels that are divided into tense and tense; there are many initial consonants and few finals; initial stops, affricates, and fricatives are divided into clear and voiced. Some dialects have nasal-coronal voiced complex consonants and voiceless fricatives. Side tone; usually three or four tones, with flat tones. The basic word order is "subject-object-predicate". When nouns and personal pronouns are used as attributives, they come before the center word. When adjectives and quantifiers are used as modifiers, they come after the center word. It is rich in quantifiers, and the automatic and causative tenses of some verbs are alternately expressed by voiceless and voiceless initial consonants.
The Yi language is divided into six major dialects: the northern dialect, which is distributed in southwest Sichuan and northwest Yunnan and the Liangshan area; the eastern dialect, which is distributed in western Guizhou, northeastern Yunnan and western Guangxi; the southeastern dialect, which is distributed in in southeastern Yunnan; Southern dialect, distributed in southern Yunnan; Western dialect, distributed in western Yunnan; Central dialect, distributed in central Yunnan. There are large differences between dialects, mainly in vocabulary, followed by pronunciation. Yi people who speak different dialects cannot communicate with each other.
(2) Yi script
Yi script is historically known as "Cuanwen", "Yishu", "Luowen", "Luoluowen" and "Yiwen". There are about more than 10,000 characters. It is a syllabic script that is in the process of developing from ideographic to phonological. It is popular in the dialect areas of the north, east, south and southeast. Earlier epigraphic and stone Yi inscriptions were discovered, such as: "The Inscription of the Lanlong Bridge" (1259), "The Inscription of the Chenghua Bell" (1485), and "The Carving Cliff" (1533) in Yunnan, etc. Later, Guizhou was discovered The "Tua Zhe Commemorative Monument" is speculated to be a work from the Shu Han period. Judging from the fonts, the Yi script at that time had developed to a certain height. According to Volume 484 of the Qing Dynasty's "Yi Tong Zhi": "In the Tang Dynasty, after Aji and Naga Yi, in Yinyan Valley, he wrote the character Cuan like a tadpole. It took three years to complete. The letters are 1,840. The name is Wei Shu, Cuan people. When I studied it, I thought of it as calligraphy. "The Yi classic "Emperor Century·Human History" records: Mi Adie created writing. "Southwestern Yi Zhi" records: Yi Awu created writing. There are also various legends about the creation of writing by Ashi Lacey, Old Man Jilu, Bo Bogeng and others. Some people speculate that the "White Wolf Song" contained in "Book of the Later Han·Zo Duyi Biography" may have been written in Bailang script, which is the predecessor of Yi script. Some people believe that the Bashu Bronze Ge characters during the Warring States Period may have historical connections with the Yi script. Some people also believe that the engraved symbols on Banpo in Xi'an are similar to the Yi characters, and the engraved symbols on painted pottery are also similar to the patterns on the clothing of the Yi people in Liangshan. However, it can be inferred from the discovered epigraphic inscriptions and documentary records that the Yi script should not have appeared later than the Eastern Han Dynasty. Most of the Yi characters are single characters, and there are a few combined characters. There are no radicals indicating meanings. The number of strokes can range from one stroke to a dozen, usually three or five strokes. Basic strokes include vertical, horizontal, left oblique, right oblique, dot, circle, semicircle, vertical fold, horizontal fold, etc. The writing style of Sichuan Yi script is horizontal rows on the left, and now there are also horizontal rows on the right; the Yungui Yi script is straight on the right row, and recently there are also straight rows on the left. Yi characters are created using methods such as pictography, meaning, transposition, adding dots, borrowing homophones, and borrowing Chinese characters.