Comments on: anybody recognize this alphabet?

Question: anybody recognize this alphabet?

garfy3 — Tue, 13 May 2008 14:54:27 -0800

anyone familiar with the language/alphabet used in this WWII-era document from western China? my best guess is something related to the Yi language, but that could (of course) be totally wrong.

By: hal_c_on

hal_c_on — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:47:22 -0800

It IS the yi language.

Check out this signpost.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e2/Yi_words_sign.jpg

Notice the first symbol (from the left) on the 2nd signpost from the bottom.
Got it?

Now check out your document. 5th line from top, 2nd symbol from left. SAME THING.

I believe that is something like "mountain".

Hope I helped.

By: cmoj

cmoj — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:57:22 -0800

I think I'm secoding hal on this, but I don't know the name immediately. Basically it's one of the precursors to han Chinese.

Now that the name han came out yi sounds right.

By: The Tensor

The Tensor — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:30:27 -0800

Definitely looks like Yi, apparently AKA Lolo. (BTW, the Yi languages are Tibeto-Burman, and so only distantly related to Chinese, and not an ancestor of modern Chinese.)

By: mumkin

mumkin — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:36:01 -0800

Yes, it's Yi. Look in a Unicode font from position A000 onward (you've got a Mac, right? Check the Character Palette under Edit > Special Characters...) and you'll find those characters. Obviously the handwritten nature of your document makes it somewhat different from the font, but perhaps the easiest character for you to visually ID is this one: ꎂ

By: garfy3

garfy3 — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:41:09 -0800

damn, you guys are good. checking on the Mac unicode font now. thanks!

By: reebear

reebear — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:43:01 -0800

Boy am I glad I bring my Chinese linguistics book to work...

Yes. John Defrancis includes an example of Yi writing in The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy. The caption reads, "A syllabary standardized in 1975 from the thousands of centuries-old symbols used by the Yi or Lolo nationality in Southwest China."

(well, that and the samples look similar, but I hate saying languages are the same because they look similar. I mean, modern Vietnamese "looks" like French...)

By: Abiezer

Abiezer — Tue, 13 May 2008 18:29:21 -0800

Agree with everyone it looks Yi. I used to work in Yi communities and all the government signs would be written in it and I even bought some kids first picture books, though I understand the modern alphabet is a post-1949 creation based on a script originally used almost exclusively for ritual purposes by shamans called bimou (scroll down a bit), which means a person who can read.