Unicode Demystified

Yi

Before we leave East Asia, let's take a quick look at one more writing system. The Yi (or Lolo or Nuo-su) people are one of the largest minority groups in China. Most live in various parts of southwestern China, but they're scattered all over southeastern Asia as well. The Yi language is related to Tibetan and Burmese and is written with its own script, called, not surprisingly, the Yi script, but sometimes known as Cuan or Wei.^[23]

^[23] My sources for this section are the Unicode standard and Dingxu Shi, “The Yi Script,” in The World's Writing Systems, pp. 239–243.

Classical Yi is an ideographic script, like the Chinese characters. Although it probably arose under the influence of the Han characters, it's not directly related to them; the ...