Studies in Asian Geolinguistics, Monograph Series No. 5

Remarks on Maps of the Yi Script Based on the Swadesh
100 Wordlist
Kazue IWASAILCAA 2015–2017 Joint Research Project Studies in Asian Geolinguistics
Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

Studies in Asian Geolinguistics, Monograph Series No. 5

Remarks on Maps of the Yi Script
Based on the Swadesh 100 Wordlist
Report of ILCAA Joint Research Project 2015–2017“Studies in Asian Geolinguistics”
by Kazue Iwasa
First published 2018

Copyright © 2018 Kazue Iwasa

ISBN 978-4-86337-292-4
This is an electronic publication in PDF format.
This publication is offered under Creative Commons International License
Attribution 4.0.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Published by
Research Institute for
Languages and Cultures ofAsia and Africa (ILCAA)
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
3-11-1, Asahi-cho, Fuchu-shi,
183-8534, Tokyo, JAPANhttps://publication.aa-ken.jp/

Cover photo: Stone Forest, Yunnan, China, by Yang Xinmin (2011)-1-

Acknowledgements
My research was generously funded by a Grant-in Aid for JSPS Research Fellow: “Attempt toclarify a mechanism of

language change by establishing and employing a corpus of thewritten language and modern dialects of Yi (言語変化メカニズム解明の試み―彝語文献

言語と現代方言のコーパス作成をもとに―)” (study headed by the present author, No.
JP15J40040).
I hereby express my gratitude to Professor Mitsuaki Endo, who has always encouraged me tomap and analysing Yi characters. Without him, I would have never been able to achieve thevaluable findings described in this work nor to have deepened my understanding of the Yi
script itself.
I am also very much obliged to the ILCAA, as this work is a product of the ILCAA
Joint Project Studies in Asian Geolinguistics and to the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from
JSPS ‘Geolinguistics Studies of China and Adjacent Multilingual Areas Using HighResolution and Wide-Area Maps’ (headed by Mitsuaki Endo, No. JP18H00670).
Finally, I thank my family, especially my beloved son, for understanding mycommitment to my lifework and allowing me to devote myself to research.

Summary
Mapping Yi characters by meaning results in significant findings. In this study, I will make someobservations about the Yi script and observe some tendencies that have been discovered using maps,
in addition to a tentative list of the basic forms of Yi characters:
1. My investigation implies a possible process of alternation of character forms within Easterndialects of Yi.
2. Dialectal distinctions aside, a remarkable resemblance exists among the scripts of certain
areas, where either similar phonetic values or character forms are found distant from eachother.
3. A tentative list of basic forms of Yi characters is given. This will be invaluable for narrowing
down the provenance of Yi manuscripts by enabling the elimination of such characters as arefound on the list because they are found throughout all the observed areas.

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Table of contents
Acknowledgements
2
Summary
3
Table of contents
4
1. Introduction
7
2. Maps of Yi characters
7
2.1 Map analysis methodology 8
3. Findings
8
3.1 Basic forms of Yi characters 9
3.2 Derivational pattern 1: addition of a stroke
11
3.3 Derivational pattern 2: change in stroke shape 12
3.4 Similarity beyond dialectal distinction
13
3.4.1 Commonalities between Luquan and the Southern dialect, Mojiang and Shuangbai
3.4.2 Commonalities between Mojiang and Lunan
14
3.4.3 Commonalities between Mojiang and Xide
14
3.4.4 Commonalities between Luquan and Lunan
14
3.4.5 Commonalities between Luquan and Xide
14
3.5 Additional remarks
14
4. Future tasks
14
Maps
15
1. I (first person pronoun singular)15
2. you (second person pronoun singular)
15
3a. we (first person pronoun plural, inclusive)16
3b. we (first person pronoun plural, exclusive)16
4. this (proximal demonstrative pronoun)17
5. that (distal demonstrative pronoun)17
6. who (interrogative word for persons)18
7. what (interrogative word for things)
18
8. not (negative verb particle)
19
9. all (of a number)
19
10. many20
11. one20
12. two21
13. big
21
14. long (not wide)22
15. small22
16. woman23
17. man (adult male human)23
18. person (individual human)
24
24
19. fish (noun)
20. bird
25
21. dog25
22. louse26
23. tree (not log)
26
24. seed (noun)27
25. leaf (botanical)
27
26. root (botanical)
28
27. (tree) bark28
28. skin29
29. flesh
29
30. blood30
31. bone30
32. grease31
33. egg
31

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14

34. horn
35. tail
36. feather
37. hair
38. head (anatomical)
39. ear40. eye
41. nose
42. mouth
43. tooth
44. tongue
45. claw
46. foot (not leg)
47. knee
48. hand49. belly
50. neck51. breast
52. heart
53. liver
54. drink
55. eat56. bite
57. see58. hear
59. know
60. sleep
61. die
62. kill
63. swim
64. fly
65. walk
66. come
67. lie (on side, recline)
68. sit69. stand70. give
71. say
72. sun73. moon
74. star
75. water (noun)
76. rain (noun)
77. stone
78. sand
79a. earth (soil; 地)
79b. earth (soil; 土)
80. cloud (not fog)
81. smoke (noun, of fire)
82. fire
83. ash(es)84a. burn (transitive verb)
84b. burn (intransitive verb)
84c. burn (noun)
85. path (not street)

32
32
33
33
34
34
35
35
36
36
37
37
38
38
39
39
40
40
41
41
42
42
43
43
44
44
45
45
46
46
47
47
48
48
49
49
50
50
51
51
52
52
53
53
54
54
55
55
56
56
57
57
58
58
59

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86. mountain (not hill)
87. red88. green
89. yellow
90. white
91. black
92a. night (晚)92b. night (夜里)92c. night (夜)93. hot (of weather)
94. cold (of weather)95. full
96. new
97. good
98. round
99. dry
100. name
References
68

59
60
60
61
61
62
62
63
63
64
64
65
65
66
66
67
67

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1

Introduction

Yiyu (彝语), the group of languages of the Yi ethnic group, belongs to the Lolo-Burmese language
group of the Tibeto-Burman language family. These languages are spoken in southwest China and thenorthern parts of Vietnam and Laos.
According to the official classification in China, there are six Yi dialects: Northern, Eastern,Southern, Southeastern, Western and Central. Four 1 of these, namely, Northern, Eastern, Southern andSoutheastern, can be written with the Yi script, and numerous manuscripts in those dialects have been
written in it.
Unlike the Modern Yi script, which was designed for universal use, the Old or Classic Yi script was
not meant to be a tool of communication, but was employed by the bimos, religious leaders of the Yi
people, and kept secret. Being a bimo and knowledge of the Yi script were passed down within a family,
as were the Yi manuscripts themselves.
Bimo apprentices would memorise the texts before they were taught how to write them. This meantthat the bimos did not require the scripture in reality. Yi manuscripts, thus, functioned as a mise-enscène and a mnemonic aid.
When a manuscript is freshly copied by an apprentice or fledgling bimo, the text is written from theirphonetic memory of it. As they write, bimos freely use homophonous characters whenever they do notremember the precisely correct one because the manuscripts were not intended for everyone but only
for bimos. In other words, the Yi script did not have to be understood by everyone; in fact, it would be
preferred that it was not known by anyone who was not part of a bimo clan nor by any other bimos. This
made it a personal, or familial, writing system. The Yi script, therefore, shows great diversity not only
from one language or dialect to another, but also from bimo to bimo.
This article examines the historical changes of Yi characters and detects a possible route for the
propagation of such changes.

2

Map of Yi characters

The maps group the dialects of Yi in accordance with the Chinese official classification. Nine
representative points are mapped as follows:
Southeastern dialect (SE): Lunan.
Eastern dialect (E): Luquan, Dafang, Weining, Panxian, Longlin.
Northern dialect (N): Xide.
Southern dialect (S): Shuangbai and Mojiang, including Shiping 2.
The main resource used for mapping was DianChuanQianGui Yihan Jiben Cihui Duizhao Cidian(『滇川黔桂彝汉基本词汇对照词典』 [1984]), which contains character data for eight points, Lunan(SE), Shuangbai (S), Luquan (E) , Dafang (E), Weining (E), Panxian (E), Longlin (E) and Liangshan(N), while Hanyi Jianming Cidian (『汉彝简明词典』[2011]) also provides abundant data, including
on Mojiang (S).
As many allographs of each vocabulary item are shown as possible, nevertheless, an imbalance exists
in the number of data points among these representative locales, especially Shuangbai (S), Longlin (E),
Weining (E), Panxian (E) and Lunan (SE). As a result of these gaps in the quantity of data, in several
areas it is utterly impossible to trace the propagation route of the Yi script and to observe how the Yi
1 The Southeastern group of Loloish dialects, categorised thus by the official Chinese classification, are placed as

one language of Central Loloish by Bradley (2002), with the remaining three dialects, the Northern, Eastern andSouthern dialects, being placed as Northern Loloish languages. In this study, however, for the reasons ofexpediency, I use the official Chinese classification because all the data that I used for mapping the extent of use
and varieties of the Yi script were found in Chinese publications, which use the official classification. Furthermore,this work does not address the classification system.
2 On our maps, Mojiang is a representative location of the Southern dialect, while several data of Shiping (S) arealso cited from other resources, for example, Diannan Yiwen Zidian『滇南彝文字典』(2005).

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script changed. Therefore, we are restricted to collecting as many characters of such points withrelatively few data as possible, and this will enable us to discover more clearly the process of historicalchanges in Yi characters.
Finally, the vowels written as [ɿ] and [ʅ] in the original sources are uniformly transcribed as [ɨ] and[i] respectively, due to unavailability of appropriate fonts for the maps.
2.1 Map analysis methodology
The most challenging aspect of character analysis is that neither standard form nor criteria exists for thedetermination of chronological order among Old Yi characters.
While copying Yi manuscripts by hand, I noticed that certain tendencies exist in the way thatcharacter forms changed, which I published in Iwasa (2017b).
In that publication, (Iwasa 2017b), I stated that cursive handwritings in bimos’ writing could haveprompted the great diversity of character forms. Below, 15 sorts of cursive patters are shown, taken fromIwasa (2017b).

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.
Although there are very few cases of stroke augmentation or form complication, cursive scripts
nonetheless stimulate the simplification of character forms. In this present study, all the maps were
examined based on the three abovementioned types and on my experience in researching Yi manuscripts.

3

Findings

The findings from the analyses of the maps are intriguing. First, the tentative basic forms of Yi characterswill be deduced. Then, other features and tendencies will be noted.

-8-3.1 Basic forms of Yi characters
A thorough examination of the 106 maps results in a tentative list of 42 basic character forms. As aresult, almost 40% of the Swadesh 100 wordlist are regarded as basic. The criteria for theirdetermination are as follows 3:
1. A given form is found in more than 75% of all representative points.
2. If a continuum is recognised between characters, even where these are different in appearance.
3. A common feature is still recognized, even though a given character is written in a cursive style,or a stroke or several strokes seem to be omitted, the direction of a stroke is upside-down, or it is written
in a mirror-image.
A chart of the basic forms of Yi characters deduced from an analysis of all the maps is given below.
The assessment of a few characters might provoke controversy regarding their origin and the processof their history of alternation. For example, Kong (2005: 108–9) alleges that the character
meaning‘(of a woman) to marry’ looks like two branches being combined and that it signifies ‘branches of afamily among the Yi (家支)’. However, this seems to be only Kong’s imagination, because no evidence
is given to prove this assertion. As can be seen in map 34 ‘horn’, other characters look notably similar
to this. I have closely considered Kong’s proposal and all other possibilities, but I have determined
this character embodies a basic form among Yi characters, whose meaning is ‘horn’, at least judging
from the resources dealt with in this study. The origins of Yi characters should be studied more closely
when the opportunity arises.
No.

Degree ofcommonality
by ratio ofcoverageMap
numberword

Basic Yi
character

1

9/9

11

one

;

2

9/9

12

two

3

9/9

16

woman

4

9/9

20

bird

5

9/9

21

dog

6

9/9

40

eye

7

9/9

43

tooth

8

9/9

48

hand

9

9/9

52

heart

10

9/9

72

sun

3 Kong (2005) has also proposed six criteria for determining “common Yi characters (共同彝文)”. Some of thesecriteria are identical with mine. The details of the similarities and differences, however, can wait for anotheroccasion.

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11

9/9

74

star

12

9/9

77

stone

13

9/9

89

yellow

14

8/8

8

not

(ma)

14’

2/2

8

not

(a)

15

8/8

13

big

16

8/8

24

seed

17

8/8

35

tail

18

8/8

38

head

19

8/8

66

come

20

8/8

100

name

21

8/9

23

tree

22

8/9

55

eat

23

8/9

75

water

24

7/8

14

long

25

7/8

17

man

26

7/8

18

person

27

7/8

31

bone

28

7/8

44

tongue

29

7/8

70

give

30

7/8

86

mountain

31

7/8

87

red

32

7/8

90

white

- 10 -

33

7/9

10

many 4

34

7/9

30

blood

35

7/9

60

sleep

36

7/9

68

sit

37

7/9

91

black

38

6/8

34

horn

39

6/8

54

drink

40

6/8

59

know

41

6/8

73

moon

42

6/8

88

green

;

All forms listed are to be expected in any given manuscript. Needless to say, they must be eliminatedin investigation of such manuscripts, and we must focus upon those forms that do vary.
3.2 Derivational pattern 1: addition of a stroke
In the maps 1 and 2, the characters signifying ‘I’ and ‘you’ in Lunan and Longlin draw the researcher’s
attention due to their significant resemblance. This implies the efficaciousness of a derivational method.
For example, in Lunan, the difference between the characters used for expressing the first- and second
person singular is limited to one stroke on the right side, while in Longlin, the character for the first
person singular shows one additional stroke beyond that of the second person singular.
[Maps 1 and 2]

4 This character is a pictograph that once meant ‘arrow’. Therefore, the meaning it now bears of ‘many’ must be a

result of a phonetic loan. See the details in map 10 and its discussion.

- 11 -

Here, another example is shown. Note the characters circled in blue.
The character meaning ‘sand’ appears to be derived by the addition of a single stroke to the one
meaning ‘stone’.
[Maps 77 and 78]

The characters for ‘red’ (map 87) and ‘green’ (map 88) match this pattern. With the exception of
Lunan, everywhere else, the characters for ‘green’ are created by adding one stroke to those ‘red’.
[Maps 87 and 88]

These observations are interesting because although the pattern is rational, it is completely opposite
to a general simplificative tendency in Yi characters.
3.3 Derivational pattern 2: change in stroke shape
The pattern of a change in stroke shape. For the characters signifying ‘I’, ‘you’ and ‘we (excl.)’ in
Lunan, the stroke on the far right changes its shape according to person and number. However, thispattern only holds true for these three pronouns.

- 12 -

[Maps 1, 2 and 3]

3.4 Similarity beyond dialectal distinction
In the Eastern dialect, the similarity among characters for all research points is as high as expected, as
these are the same two groups of character forms, namely, the Yunnan group and the Guizhou group.
Within the Guizhou group in particular, the characters are quite uniform.
Most notably, Luquan (E) characters seem to play the role of a mediator among all four dialects. In
reality, between the Yunnan and Guizhou groups in the Eastern dialect, 97 out of 106 characters are incommon, including allographs, meaning this dialect features 91.5% commonalities, and 82 out of thesaid 97 are found in Luquan. This may be because of Luquan’s location. Further, 42 out of the 97 arebasic characters, and 55 characters are dialectal. The rate of dialectal characters is thus 51.9%. This rate
is higher than that found in the Southern dialect as noted below.
In the Southern dialect, between Shuangbai and Mojiang, 69 out of 106 characters are identical or
strikingly similar, giving an inner-dialectal commonality rate of 65%. Of these, 35 are basic characters,
meaning that the remaining 34 indicate commonality. The rate of dialectal characters is thus 32.1%,
which is lower than the 51.9% of the Eastern dialect.
The Zhilujing (指路經), a Yi sutra, which narrates the route of the soul to the ancestors’ homeland,
supports the characterisation that the ancestors of the Yi came from Zhaotong (昭通). If the Yi script
propagated from Zhaotong in every direction, it would have passed through Luquan; likewise, it would
have gone through Weining, Dafang, and other sites. However, it would not have gone directly to
Shuangbai from Luquan, as mentioned below.

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Unlike the case of the Eastern dialect, there are several other instances that show a high degree ofcommonality, beyond dialectal distinction. This phenomenon appears to have its origin in proximity.
3.4.1 Commonalities between Luquan and the Southern dialect, Mojiang and Shuangbai
Between Luquan and the Southern dialect, 68 out of 106 characters are in common, including allographs.
Because 38 out of the 68 are basic forms, 30 characters demonstrate similarity. Interestingly, 21 of those
30 are found in Luquan and Mojiang and are not shared between Luquan and Shuangbai, although
Luquan and Shuangbai are near each other. This may be a result of the lack of data on Shuangbai;
however, it may also imply that the propagation route of the Yi script to Shuangbai could have been adifferent one, such as that from the Mojiang area.
3.4.2 Commonalities between Mojiang and Lunan
There are 69 common or strikingly similar characters between Mojiang and Lunan. Of these, 37
characters are basic, meaning that the remaining 32 demonstrate high commonality between these twopoints, despite the dialectal distinction. This appears to stem from their adjacency.
3.4.3 Commonalities between Mojiang and Xide
Between Mojiang and Xide, there are 60 characters that display a high degree of similarity. As 36 ofthem are basic, the remaining 24 indicate commonality. The dialectal affinity of Mojiang and Xide isthus different, and the two dialects are found far apart. In fact, Xide is the northernmost in the distributionof the Yi script in China, whereas Mojiang is the southernmost.
This fact suggests that Mojiang and Xide are in relatively closer relation than the other dialects andthat they departed in opposite directions at a period that was much earlier than the others.
3.4.4 Commonalities between Luquan and Lunan
There are 64 characters in total shared between Luquan and Lunan, and 41 are basic characters, meaningthat the 23 characters display the resemblance of these two, beyond their dialectal affiliation. Although
the degree of mutual contact between them is uncertain, their vicinity is a strong candidate for the reason
that they have this similarity in characters.
3.4.5 Commonalities between Luquan and Xide
Luquan and Xide have 58 characters in common. Because 39 are basic characters, the remaining 19
characters illustrate the commonality between the two, although Luquan and Xide are distant and belong
to different dialects. Their commonality could be attributed to relative closeness, there would be genetic
reason as well.
3.5 Additional remarks
Within the Eastern dialect area, namely Luquan, Weining, Dagfang, Panxian and Longlin, Longlin is tobe distinguished from the others to a certain extent. Longlin characters have a high individuality.
However, there are not enough data on Longlin at the present time. More data must be collected tosupport further investigation.

4

Future tasks

Any future task must incorporate the classification and analysis of the sets of characters in the five cases
noted above that demonstrate high commonality.
The second task is to collect data on the Longlin characters for further investigation of the origin of
their individuality.
Third, data must be collected to fill in the areas where the maps are incomplete. This would show us
more detailed and concrete continua for each character, making it possible to discover a convincing
route for the propagation of the Yi script and its process of change.

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In Luquan (E), the characters circled in blue result
from a borrowing of the Chinese character 五,‘five’. This same phonetic loan appears to have
happened to other homonymic words as well,such as ‘I’ and ‘fish’.
The character circled in green for Panxian(E) shows the most complex form, and thisappears to be in allographic relationship withthose shaded in green. They are concentrated andcommon within the Eastern dialect, and one ofthem is also observed in Mojiang, in the Southerndialect area.
Both the pronunciations and the charactersof Shuangbai (S) and Mojiang (S) are similar, as
indicated by the red circles. This movement may
be a result of the proximity, as well as theirdialectal affiliation.
The character in Lunan (SE), which ismarked in turquoise, is unique, differentiatedfrom those of other areas.

Among the research points within the Easterndialectal area, the characters within the green
frame demonstrate a striking similarity one
another.
Within the Southern dialect, the charactersfound in Shuangbai and Mojiang are identical as
indicated by a red circle.
In Xide (N) and Mojiang (S), similar
characters are found, as indicated by blue circles,
despite the geographical and dialectal distance.
The Lunan (SE) character that is marked inturquoise is not found in other areas.

- 15 -

The words [ŋə21 bu21] in Panxian (E) and [ŋo33bɯ21] in Mojiang (S), circled in red, bear aphonetic resemblance, although they are writtendifferently. Because the word [bɯ21] in Mojiang
expresses plurality, it is highly probable that one
or both of them are phonetic loans. At least,[bɯ21] is a phonetic loan of the word ‘mountain’,
which is pronounced and written identically.
On the whole, most of phonetic
representations are as similar as [ɑ33 ɕe55] inWeining (E), [ʔɑ33 xi55] in Dafang (E), [ɑ55 se55]
in Luquan (E), [ɑ21 sɨ55] in Lunan (SE) and [ɑ33sɨ55] in Xide (N), while their written all differ
from each other, except for Weining and Dafang,
which are marked in blue.

As mentioned above, the word [bɯ21] (in theexpression [ŋo33 bɯ21]) in Mojiang (S) expresses
plurality. In Shuangbai (S), an identical characterto that for [bɯ21] is found, and it is pronounced
similarly, [bɤ21]. This may be a result ofproximity, in addition to their dialectal affinity.

- 16 -

The data are divided according to their phonetic
representations into two groups, as indicated by
the blue line.
One group has a mid-high front and highcentral vowel, namely, Lunan (SE), Shuangbai(S) and Mojiang (S).
The other has an alveolar–retroflex
affricative + a high front–high central vowel:
Xide (N), Weining (E), Dafang (E) and Luquan(E).
In the former characters, and particularly inthose of Shuangbai and Mojiang marked in red, astriking resemblance is found, in addition to theirphonetic closeness. Furthermore, there is noother place that has the same character as
Shuangbai and Mojiang or a similar one.
The word in Longlin (E) from this set
deserves further research.

The phonetic representation as well as
appearance of the characters are various.
According to STEDT, [a33 di55] in Xide (N)seems to originate in PTB *m-day ⪤ *m-di(‘that’/ ‘this’ [deictic]) 5.

5Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus(http://stedt.berkeley.edu/~stedt-cgi/rootcanal.pl), lastaccessed on 12 August, 2018.

- 17 -

With the exception of Xide (N) and Longlin (E),the remainder have phonetic similarity with one
another.
In Luquan (E), it is highly probable that thetwo characters pronounced [se33], which aremarked in blue, are phonetic loans. The upper one
is identical to the word meaning ‘three’, and thelower is identical to the word meaning ‘night’,according to Jianming Yihan Zidian (2014) 6.
The Weining (E) and Panxian (E) characters
circled in red bear a certain resemblance. In
addition to the close proximity of these two
locations, both of them are found in the Easterndialect, leading us to conclude that they may bein allographic relation.

According to the Sino-Tibetan Etymological
Dictionary and Thesaurus (STEDT), [mɯ33] in
Dafang (E), [mɪ33] in Lunan (SE) 7, both appear tooriginate in PTB *(b/m) a-y (‘what’).
The pronunciations of this word in Shuangbai(S) and Mojiang (S) are similar to each other,although they are written differently.
In Luquan (E) and Panxian (E), thepronunciations and characters for [mo33], marked
in blue, are identical. Their meaning and phonetic
value indicate that they also may have their origin
in PTB *(b/m)a-y (‘what’).

2014. 『简明彝汉字典（禄劝版）』
云南民族出版社.

6 张晋智主编.

7 In STEDT, last accessed on 12 August, 2018, thetone of Sani is marked as 44. Yet, if the word forms
and meanings found in both STEDT and my resources
are considered, they are high- 18 -

On the whole, the most common form is characterfor ‘not’, as represented by the green-circled
characters. In Mojiang (S), all characters show
great formal diversity in forms, apart from thetriangular one, in green, which is likely derived
from the most common form.
The words signified by a blue circle, [a21] in
Xide (N) and [ɑ33] in Dafang (E), similar
characters are found, although various allographs
exist in each place.

Apparently, each location exhibits variant word
formations.

- 19 -

Among the Eastern dialectal area, in Weining,
Dafang, Panxian and Luquan, the characters in
the red frame carry a common form.
Furthermore, the phonetic and formal
similarity of the character marked in blue to thosewithin the red frame is perceived.
With the exception of those in Xide (N) and
Shuangbai (S), all the other characters are
pictographic and originally carried the meaningof ‘arrow’. They likely began to be used broadly
to express ‘many’, as a result of a phonetic loan.

Each character that means ‘one’ shows a great
similarity in its form to the others.
Interestingly, the form in Lunan (SE), shaded
red, is a vertically reversed version of thecharacters within red circles.
In the West, from Xide (N) in the Northerndialectal area to Mojiang (S) in the Southern area,
a common character form is observed among
those circled in green, in spite of the slightphonetic difference.
It is also intriguing that characters circled ingreen and in red are found in Luquan (E) andLunan, illustrating an intermediary area for these
two groups.

- 20 -

In general, the shape as seen in Luquan (E) issimilar to the Chinese 二 (‘two’). Such Yi
characters should be categorised as an indicatingmeans ( 指 事 ) the Six Methods of forming
Chinese characters (六書), just as in 二.
The map clearly indicates that there are two
types of characters indicating ‘two’. One, marked
in blue, is generally distributed in the Northernpart, whereas the other, marked in red, isobserved more widely.
The characters shaded in red fall into linefrom Xide (N) to Lunan (SE).

A common character form is seen among thosecircled in red, and the character in Lunan (SE)shaded in red is supposed to be an allograph ofthose.
In Xide (N), the three characters circled inblue are considered to be phonetic loans due totheir homonymity with [ʑɨ33]: they express‘water’, for example, as well as ‘big’. Charactersthat are similar to them are used to indicate ‘water’where the Yi script exists.

- 21 -

The most common character form of this word iscircled in red. Identical forms are found in all
locales except for Shuangbai (S) and Panxian (E),although the corresponding character in Panxian
should be regarded as an allograph. As in Panxian,
the other characters shaded in red are also to beunderstood as allographs of the more common
form.
If the character circled in red is regarded asa standard form of the word ‘long’, the Shuangbai(S) version of the character is likely a phonetic
loan, as the character marked with a blue circle
means ‘gold’ and is pronounced the same there.

On one hand, the characters indicated by thegreen circles found in Weining, Dafang andPanxian within the Eastern dialectal area, bear aremarkable similarity to each other, but on theother hand, in the Southern dialectal area, theShuangbai bears a striking resemblance to that of
Mojiang—these characters are indicated by ablue circle.
Two characters shaded in green seem to bein an allographic relation, in spite of theirphonetic dissimilation. This suggests that theyshould both be logographic. Furthermore, theymight be allographs of the characters circled ingreen as well.
Our attention is most directly drawn by anallograph of Mojiang, here indicated by a red
circle. This is clearly a borrowing of the Chinese
小, ‘small’, based on meaning.

- 22 -

A common character form, circled in blue, isindicated here, such as the one in Dafang (E).
Identical characters and very similar allographs
are found all over the map. Their phonetic values
are also very close.
This character appears to be so stable that it
has not changed all over the whole area, although
it has been in use over a long period.

A common character form, here circled in red,means ‘man’; for example, in Luquan (E). The
phonetic representations of the words in all areas
also show a striking resemblance.

- 23 -

A common character form is used for the word
‘person’, as marked in red, everywhere except
Shuangbai (S), where the character used may bea phonetic loan.

At all research points except Weining (E) andLonglin (E), there are characters, here marked inred, that bear a resemblance to the Chinese 五(‘five’), although some show a vertical inversion.
It is plausible that they were borrowed from
Chinese, first to express the number five becauseof their phonetic proximity to the contemporary
pronunciation of vernacular Chinese. Then, thisborrowed character may have begun to be used
for homonymic words like ‘fish’ and ‘I’. Identicalcharacters, marked in blue, are found in Xide (N)and Mojiang (S), despite their distance and theirphonetic and dialectal difference. With due
consideration for the phonetic representations of
the other places considered, the [xɯ33] of Xide
appears to be a result of a lexical replacement or
historical sound change. The most interesting
aspect of this is that ‘five’ is now pronounced as[ŋɯ33] in Xide. This means that the character 五
must have been borrowed before the replacement
or sound change occurred. However, for this to beclearly settled, further investigation will beneeded.
Interestingly enough, several pictographic
characters have been recognised, such as, forexample, the simplest one, marked with a green
circle in Mojiang.

- 24 -

On the whole, many pictographic characters forthe word ‘bird’ are found; these are indicated inred. Most appear to depict a bird spreading its
wings to fly.
According to STEDT 8, the etymon here for
Lunan (SE) and Dafang (E) is PTB *s-ŋak (‘bird’),
PLB *s-ŋ(y)akH (‘bird’), whereas that of Xide (N)is PTB *k-rak (‘fowl’/ ‘chicken’). Consequently,
the phonetic value for ‘bird’ in Xide is different
from that for the corresponding term in Lunan
and Dafang. Nevertheless, this word is written
identically in each place due to its pictographic
nature.

As for ‘dog’, common or representative forms
can be seen marked in blue, present in all thecharacters on the map. The characters for Lunan(SE) appear to be radical simplifications of thosefor Shuangbai (S).
One of the allographs in Xide (N), marked inred, is probably a phonetic loan.
The etymons for the words for Lunan andDafang (E) are PTB *d-kwəy-n (‘dog’) and PLB*kwəy2 (‘dog’), according to STEDT 9.

8 Last accessed on 12 August, 2018.

9 Last accessed on 12 August, 2018.

- 25 -

According to STEDT 10, the etymons for [ʂɯ33] ofXide (N), [ɕi33] of Dafang (E), [ɕe21] of Mojiang(S) and [ɕɪ33] or [ɕɨ33] of Lunan (SE) are PTB*s(y)ar (‘louse’), PLB *san1/2 (‘louse’).
In Luquan (E), ‘louse’ and ‘iron’ arehomophonous. The character for ‘iron’ is written
as the one indicated with the red circle on the map,and the characters shaded in red must be
allographs, which are also found in Lunan.
In Mojiang too, the characters circled in blue
are used for ‘iron’ because they are homophonous,
meaning that the ones shaded in blue may beallographs of these.
In Xide, as in Luquan and Mojiang, thecharacter in the green circle is used for the word‘iron’ as well, due to the homophony.
Interestingly, a cognate for ‘iron’, pronounced[hɯ33], is written identically to the Luquancharacter marked in red. Given this, it appears
that a similar phonetic loan occurred in both Xideand Luquan, bringing these homophonous words
to be written similarly.

Common character forms have been recognised
elsewhere, such as, for example, in Shuangbai (S).
The etymons for these words in Xide (N),
Dafang (E), Mojiang (S) and Lunan (SE) are PTB*si(ŋ/k) (‘tree’/ ‘wood’/ ‘firewood’) and PLB*sikH ⪤ siŋ (‘tree’), according to STEDT 11.
The character used in Panxian (E), circled inblue, is thought to be a phonetic loan.

10 Last accessed on 14 August, 2018.

11 Last accessed on 14 August, 2018.

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A continuum appears to exist among all thecharacters as marked in blue, and their phonetic
values are also similar to each other, with the
exception of that in Xide (N). The phonetic value[lɨ21] in Xide is very different from the others,
beginning with a sibilant [s-] or [ʂ-]. This factindicates that the etymon of [lɨ21] is distinct fromthe others.

There are two series of characters signifying‘leaf’. One, marked in blue, contains words
beginning with [ph-], most of which take the formof a striped-triangle. In the other series are words
beginning with an alveolar/retroflex stop or an
alveolo-palatal affricate, and those are marked in
red.
Interestingly, the Panxian (E) word [pha21
33tho ] appears to be a combination of these twoseries.
In addition, all characters belonging to thesecond series are only found to the north ofPanxian. Therefore, unlike the other sites in the
Eastern dialect area, no character circled in red isfound in Luquan or Longlin, although the one inLonglin appears quite different from all the others.

- 27 -

The characters for Shuangbai (S) and Mojiang (S)marked in red look quite similar, as do theirpronunciations.
The word in Panxian (E) is different from all
the others in its formation, written character andpronunciation.

Five groups exist. Most of the disyllabic words
consist of a word formation like ‘tree-skin’.
The characters marked in red are found in
Xide (N) and Panxian (E). Their shapes and theirphonetic values are very close, in spite of thedialectal distinction.
The characters indicated by blue circles areobserved in Shuangbai (S) and Mojiang (S),although the characters appear to be rotated.
Their shapes and pronunciations bear a strong
resemblance to each other.
The characters marked in green are found in
Mojiang and Lunan (SE). They have a similar
appearance, and their pronunciations are similar
as well, despite the dialectal differences.
The characters circled in pink are distributedin Weining (E) and Dafang (E). Their shapes andphonetic values are very similar. Those that are
shaded in pink appear to be allographs of these,
although the pronunciation of them in Luquan (E)is different. This indicates their logographic
nature.
The characters shaded in turquoise show adegree of formal resemblance, but not in theirphonetic values. Further investigation is needed.

- 28 -

According to STEDT 12, the etymons for the Xide
(N), Dafang (E), Mojiang (S) and Lunan (SE)words are PTB *m/s-k-rəy (‘skin’), and PLB *mk-rəy1 (‘skin’/ ‘outer covering’).
The characters show a rich diversity of forms,
but similar characters are found in Weining (E)and Dafang.

Provisionally, four groups have been determined,
according to the form of the characters, namely,
those circled in blue, red, green and turquoise.
According to STEDT 13 , the etymon for the
Xide (N), Dafang (E), Mojiang (S) and Lunan(SE) words is PTB *sya-n (‘flesh’/‘meat’/‘game
animal’).
The group in red is only found in the Easterndialectal area.
The Mojiang character marked in green,
although its form is not identical to the charactersfor Luquan (E), their pronunciations are the same.
Interestingly, the characters marked in blue
are found from Xide in the north to Mojiang inthe south, beyond a zone including Luquan,Panxian (E), Weining (E) and Dafang. It is thus
plausible that the form might be older than thoseof the other groups. In addition to this, as thecharacters marked in turquoise are foundexclusively in Xide and Mojiang, they mightretain relatively older forms as well.

12 Last accessed on 12 August, 2018.

13 Last accessed on 12 August, 2018.

- 29 -

According to STEDT 14 , the etymons for thewords in Xide (N), Dafang (E), Mojiang (S) andLunan (SE) are PTB *s-hywəy-t (‘blood’) and
PLB *swəy2 (‘blood’).
The characters marked in blue and their
allographs are observed in the Eastern dialectal
area, in particular, in Luquan, Weining, Dafang,
Longlin, as well as in Lunan of the Southeasterndialectal area and in Mojiang of the Southerndialectal area.
The characters marked in red are only foundalong the western boundary, from the north to thesouth.
However, it should be noted that Mojiang, thesouthernmost location of all, features both typesof characters.

The characters that are circled in blue are usedthroughout all the area, and they can be regarded
as a common form for the word ‘bone’. Their
written forms and their phonetic values are
similar to each other. It is quite probable that thischaracter was in widespread use in the area where
the Yi script was used, seeing little change
throughout its history, although indeed someallographs do exist.
On the other hand, the character used in
Lunan (SE) is pronounced almost identically tothe characters circled in blue, but it differs greatly
in its written form.
In STEDT 15, it is found that the etymon for21[vu ] of [vu21 du33] in Xide (N), [ɣɯ33] in Dafang(E) and Mojiang (S), and [ɣɯ21] in Lunan is PTB*s/m/g-rus (‘bone’), whereas that for [du33] of[vu21 du33] in Xide is PTB *g-du(ŋ) (‘bone’).

14 Last accessed on 12 August, 2018.

15 Last accessed on 12 August, 2018.

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There are five character types for the word
‘grease’, but there are only two phonetic values.
The characters marked in yellow andturquoise are found in the northern area, namely,in Xide (N), Dafang (E), Panxian (E) and Luquan(E), most of which are within the Eastern dialectal
area.
The characters circled in red and in blue areused in Xide, the northernmost, and in Shuangbai(S), Mojiang (S) and Lunan (SE) in the south area,
but nowhere in the Eastern dialectal area.
Interestingly, the characters marked in green
are observed in Xide and Mojiang, that is, in thenorthernmost and the southernmost surveyed
areas. This may be interpreted to mean that thischaracter type is older than the others.

The characters marked in red are used mostwidely, and those marked in blue are only foundperipherally.
The characters circled in green are distributedin Mojiang (S) and in the eastern areas of theEastern dialectal area. The most notable fact isthat the pronunciation of these characters isdifferent in each place: [ndo55] in Weining (E),[ndu55] in Dafang (E), [ɬɔ31] in Panxian (E) and[fu21] in Mojiang (S). In Dafang in particular, allthree types of characters appear, and each typehas its own phonetic value as a result of
etymological difference. According to STEDT 16,
the etymons are as follows:
The etymon of [fu21] of Mojiang is PTB *ʔu(‘egg’/ ‘bird’).
In Xide (N), the etymon of [tɕhi21] is PTB*d(w)əy (‘egg’/ ‘testicle’).
Although no etymological information isavailable in STEDT for the word [ndu55] in
Dafang, the similar-sounding [ndo55] does havean attested etymon for Dafang, namely PTB*m/s-tow (‘egg’).
16 Last accessed on 12 August, 2018.

- 31 -

While there is a common form of the character
throughout the area, which is marked in blue, thephonetic values of the characters in the various
locations are diverse.
However, the etymon of [fu33] in Xide (N),[tɕhi33] in Dafang (E), [tshi21] in Mojiang (S) and[khɯ33] in Lunan (SE) is PTB *d-krəw (‘horn’).
The phonetic differences here are due to ahistorical phonological change.
The characters circled in red and seemingly
their allograph shaded in red are concentrated in
the southwestern area of the map, namely, in
Luquan (E), Lunan (SE) and Mojiang (S).

The characters marked in blue are found in eachlocation. A formal continuum appears among thecharacters in this group. Additionally, each has
the m- initial nasal. For example, the etymons for[mɛ55] in Lunan (SE) are PTB *r-may⪤ *m-ray(‘tail’/ ‘penis’) and PLB *ʔm(r)ay2 (‘tail’),according to STEDT 17.
The characters circled in red are found in
Xide (N) and Luquan (E). The etymon of [ʂu33] of[phu21 ʂu33] in Xide from ZMYY (1991) is PTB*swap (‘buttocks’/ ‘tail’). This also holds true in[su33] in Dafang (E).
The characters circled in green are anothergroup, also meaning tail, and they are also
widespread. In particular, the two charactersshaded in yellow in the green circles, as in Xideand Mojiang (S), are identical in form but
different in pronunciations. Further research isnecessary to account for this.

17 Last accessed on 19 August, 2018.

- 32 -

The characters that are both circled and shaded inblue appear to be on a continuum, but again
further investigation is necessary here. The
etymon for [ȵɛ33] in Xide (N) is PTB *r-(n/m)ey(‘hair of head’), as stated in STEDT 18.
The characters circled in red have only beenfound in Weining (E) and Panxian (E) hitherto.
Interestingly, their pronunciations are also
different from those marked in blue.
The clear distinction between charactersmarked in blue and those in red is striking,namely, that they fall in the east and in the west,
respectively.

The word formation of ‘hair’ is the same in allplaces, namely, ‘head-hair’.
The characters circled in blue are the mostwidespread, appearing on a continuum. The
closer one looks toward the centre, namely,
Panxian (E) or Luquan (E), the more complex thecharacter forms become.
In Shuangbai (S) and Mojiang (S), similar
characters are marked in green.
The words in Xide (N) framed in red differ
from the others due to their etymology. The
etymon for [ȵɛ33] in Xide is PTB *r-(n/m)ey (‘hairof head’), while [tshɯ33] in Dafang (E), [tɕhe21]
in Mojiang and [tshɤ33] in Lunan (SE) have thecommon etymon PTB *(t)sam (‘hair [head]’),according to STEDT 19.

18 Last accessed on 19 August, 2018.

19 Last accessed on 19 August, 2018.

- 33 -

The characters marked in blue bear a striking
resemblance, and a continuum can also be clearlyobserved when they are compared one withanother. The etymon for [o33] in Xide (N), [ŋu33]
in Mojiang (S) and [o55] in Lunan (SE) is PTB *dbu-s (‘head’/ ‘centre’/ ‘senior male relative’ /‘uncle’), according to STEDT 20.
The character within the turquoise circle isfound in Lunan and pronounced [qo21]. Its
etymon is PTB *s-kawŋ (‘hollow’/‘hollow
object’/‘head’), as asserted in STEDT. On theother hand, in Luquan (E), the character marked
in red is pronounced [kə21], similar to thepronunciation [qo21] in Lunan. Although the
etymon for [kə21] is uncertain, it is plausible thatit should be cognate with [qo21].
The word [i33 tɕhi33] in Xide composed of [i33],
whose etymon is the same as that of the charactersmarked in blue, and of [tɕhi33], whose etymon is
PTB *d-kyil (‘crown of head’), according to
STEDT 21.
On the whole, the fact that the common form
marked in blue is seen in characters all over themap suggests that this form did not change
drastically, in spite of its wide distribution andlong-running use through the ages.
Word formation is similar over the entire area, inwhich disyllabic words are generally observed.
The first syllable appears in three forms,
which are indicated by red, blue and green circles,
respectively. In particular, the characters circled
in blue show a continuum within their wide
distribution, and the ones shaded in blue might beallographs for them. More research is needed.
On the other hand, two types of the characters
appear for the second syllable, and they areshaded either in pale blue or in pink. Although thecharacters marked with pale blue display a more
complex form than the ones in pink, a sequenceof formal change can apparently be observed
between these two types. Their interrelationshipis uncertain, making further research necessary.

20 Last accessed on 12 August, 2018.

21 Last accessed on 12 August, 2018.

- 34 -

With all the characters on the map investigatedand compared, it is clear that a common character
form exists among them. It is a typical pictograph.

The characters marked in blue are foundexclusively in the southwestern area of the map,and those circled in green and turquoise are only
found in the northeast. The characters marked inred, for their part, are distributed over a broaderarea, if the characters from Mojiang (S) andLuquan (E) are counted as their allographs.
The characters shaded in pale blue are foundin Luquan and Mojiang, and they are formally
identical, in spite of the dialectal difference.
Moreover, the words [no21 bi21] in Luquan and[no55 bɤ21] in Mojiang are phonetically similar.
The reason that has led to identical characters
being used in these places remains uncertain andrequires further research.
The characters shaded in pale pink in Lunan
and Mojiang resemble each other to a certain
extent, but the phonetic values are divergent. At
the moment, the resemblance seems purely
coincidental, but their logographic origin must be
investigated to confirm this supposition. As both
appear in a word that has the same meaning inboth places, a slight possibility exists of lexical
replacement.

- 35 -

The characters circled in blue are only found in
the southwestern area, in Luquan (E), Shuangbai(S), Mojiang (S) and Lunan (SE). This may be
due to their proximity or areal features.
The characters marked in green are observedin Xide (N) and Shuangbai. However,interestingly enough, neither these characters nor
another that bears a similar pronunciation toeither is found in Luquan, which is locatedbetween the two places.
The characters indicated with a red circle areexclusively distributed in Weining (E) andDafang (E). These may be local characters, as thecharacter [pu33] in Luquan seems to be cognate 22
with them, but it is written differently.
The characters shaded in turquoise resemble
each other to some extent, but their phonetic
values are different. This implies that thesecharacters were logographic or that a lexical
replacement or a phonetic loan occurred in thehistory of one of them.

As has been seen, a continuum exists, and it iseasy to follow the process of change in character
forms. The characters appear to be pictographic,
and the most complicated form among them isthat for Luquan (E), which is marked in blue, andits simplified allographs are circled in turquoise.
According to STEDT 23 , the provisional
etymons for [dʐi33] in Xide (N), [dzɛ21] inMojiang (S) and [tʂi33] in Lunan (SE) are PTB*m-dzyway (‘tooth’/ ‘tusk’), and PLB *jway1(‘tooth’/ ‘tusk’).

22 Further investigation and additional data are needed

before any conclusion can be drawn concerning its

etymology.
23 Last accessed on 12 August, 2018.

- 36 -

There are three representative types among thecharacter forms.
The character type marked has the widest
distribution. Most characters in this type have
similar phonetic values: [ɬu33] in Weining (E),[ɬo55] in Mojiang (S) and so on, although, the one
in Xide (N) is different, [nɛ33]. This may be due
to lexical replacement, but further investigation isneeded.
The type circled in red is found in thesouthwestern area, in Shuangbai (S) and Mojiang.
The phonetic value [so55] in Mojiang appears to
be cognate with the other [ɬo55] and thus to be a
result of phonological change.
The third type, marked in green, has only
been observed in Xide.

The characters marked in blue are distributed
most widely.
The ones marked in turquoise are seen in thewestern area, in Luquan (E), Mojiang (S) andLunan (SE), irrespective of the dialectal variation.
It is highly probable that these constitute aphonetic loan.
The characters circled in green are found in
Dafang (E), the easternmost location, and in
Shuangbai (S), the westernmost one. They also
probably constitute phonetic loans.
The characters circled in red are found in thenorthernmost location, Xide (N), and thesouthernmost, Mojiang.
The character marked in pink is only found in
Luquan, and it is also a phonetic loan. It is
normally used to indicate the number ‘three’.

- 37 -

For ‘foot’, two basic forms have provisionallybeen set. The characters circled are the standard
forms, and the shaded ones are allographs.
The characters marked in blue are found overa wide range, in most places, with the exceptionof Luquan (E). Several characters used in Luquan
are thought to be a phonetic loan.
The ones marked in red are only found in thesouthwestern area, Shuangbai (S), Mojiang (S)and Lunan (SE).
Considering the distribution of each form, thecharacters marked in red are most likely newer
than those in blue, in spite of the fact that they
seem more pictographic.

The characters shaded in green seem to be
derived from a certain basic form, as do those inturquoise and in pink.
The characters marked in blue are distributedin the northernmost and southernmost areas, Xide(N) and Mojiang (S), while those marked in red
are only found in the southwestern region, in
Shuangbai (S) and Mojiang in particular. The
character forms circled in blue may be older thanthose in red.

- 38 -

There is obviously one common character form
here, circled in blue.
The etymons for [lo55] in Xide (N), [lɑ13] in
Dafang (E), [lɑ55] in Luquan (E), [le21] in Mojiang(S) and [le21] in Lunan (SE) are PTB *lak (‘hand’/‘limb’), PLB *lakL (‘hand’) and PL *lakL (‘hand’),
according to STEDT 24.

The characters marked in blue appear to belong
to the same group. However, the phonetic values
show two types. One type, shaded in blue, begins
with [p-], whereas the other, circled in blue, has a[ɣ-] or zero initial consonant. The usage of thesecharacters, their different phonetic values andtheir wide distributions suggest that they could
have been used as logographs.

24 Last accessed on 23 August, 2018.

- 39 -

The characters that are circled in green are
considered to be one group, although thecharacter from Luquan (E) appears slightly
different in its shape and phonetic value. The
etymon for [lie21] in Dafang (E) and [lɛ33] inLunan (SE) is PTB *g/m-liŋ (‘neck’), according
to STEDT 25.
The characters marked in pink are widespread.
The etymon for [be21] in Mojiang (S) is PTB*bran ⪤ *pwat (‘neck’/ ‘throat’).
The characters that are circled in red show acertain resemblance in their forms. However,their pronunciations are different; these can bedivided into two groups. One group, shaded ingreen, is phonetically similar to the characters
circled in green, and the group shaded in blue isphonetically similar to those circled in blue. Thissignifies that the characters might have served as
logographs.
The characters that are circled in blue areexclusively found in Weining (E) and Dafang (E),while [ku21], which shows a similar phonetic
value, is observed in Xide (N). The etymon of thisword in Xide is PTB *kwa (‘throat’/ ‘neck’). This
may apply to the word [ko55] in Dafang as well.
The most widely distributed form is marked by ablue circle, while the character shaded in blue,
found in Lunan (SE), is considered a phonetic
loan of this word.
The characters circled in red are only found in
Eastern dialectal region, especially in Weining,
Dafang and Panxian. The phonetic values of thesecharacters are [tu33] or [tu13], and in Lunan thesimilar pronunciations of [tu33] and [tu33] areobserved. This is a regional feature of the easterndialectal area.
The characters circled in green are only
observed in Xide (N) and Shuangbai (S).
The characters marked in turquoise are foundin Luquan (E), Shuangbai and Lunan. Theirphonetic values are all different, however.
The characters marked in pink are found in
Shuangbai and Mojiang (S). Their forms andphonetic values are similar, in spite of thedialectal differences between these two places.

25 Last accessed on 10 August, 2018.

- 40 -

The characters meaning ‘heart’ has a common
form, which is circled in blue.
This form is observed throughout the entire
area, which means that the character islogographic in origin and has been used widelyover a long period, without any drastic change.
The phonetic value in Xide (N) is [he33]; thisseems to differ from the other pronunciations.
However, this can be traced to phonologicalchange. The etymon of this pronunciation is thesame as the [ne33] of Dafang (E), described in
Chen et al. (1985: 243): PTB *s-ni (‘heart’/‘breast’/ ‘chest’/ ‘rib’).

The characters circled either in green or inturquoise are only to be found in Weining (E),
Dafang (E) and Luquan (E), and those marked
either in red or in blue are more widely observedin the remaining locations.

- 41 -

With the exception of Shuangbai (S) and Mojiang(S), the common form that is marked in blue is
widely distributed.
The etymon for [ndo33] in Xide (N), [dɒ21] inMojiang and [tʂi55] in Lunan (SE) are PTB *m/stuŋ (‘drink’/ ‘suckle’), PLB *m-daŋ1 ⪤ m-doŋ1(‘drink’) and PL *m-daŋ1 (‘drink’), as asserted by
STEDT 26.
This character may have been a logographbecause allographs found in Xide and Luquan (E)retain a certain similarity in their form. However,in Shuangbai, Mojiang and Lunan in the south,
characters are observed that bear a different form.
These seem to be the result of a phonetic loan.

The characters circled in blue bear a remarkable
resemblance among themselves, and they areobserved over the entire area. This implies thatthe characters were logographic and that theychanged little over the course of their histories
and throughout the wide area where they arefound.
The wide distribution of the charactersabovementioned implies that it is highly probablethat the characters found in Xide (N) and
Shuangbai (S), marked in red, represent phonetic
loans. In Shuangbai, as this is the only character
that expresses ‘eat’, at least to available
knowledge, this homophonous character appears
to have taken a firm hold on this area in the placeof the common forms identified by the blue
circles.

26 Last accessed on 22 August, 2018.

- 42 -

There are two distinctive, common forms among
the characters over the entire area.
The characters that are marked in red are
categorised together into one group, andprovisionally, although there is some differencein their shapes, the other characters, marked inblue, do nevertheless show a certain resemblance,on the whole.
The character found in Dafang (E), shaded inred, is similar to those circled in red in its form;
however, its phonetic value is different.
The character found in Lunan (SE) is shadedin blue: this character bears a certain similarity inits form to those marked in a red circle, but it has
a different phonetic value.

Three types of the character form exist.
One type, marked in blue, is distributed in the
Eastern dialectic area, namely, in Luquan,Weining, Dafang and Panxian. The character
found in Luquan, shaded in blue, appears to be an
allograph, but further investigation is necessary toconfirm this.
The characters belonging to the type marked
in red are found in the Southern dialectal area,
Shuangbai (S) and Mojiang (S).
The characters of the final type are marked ingreen. These can be observed in Mojiang and
Lunan (SE), in spite of the dialectal differences
between these two places. This may be due totheir proximity.
According to STEDT 27 , the etymons for[mo33] in Xide (N), [ŋɒ21] in Mojiang are PTB*mraŋ (‘see’), PLB *s-mraŋ (‘show’), PLB*mraŋ1 (‘see’).

27 Last accessed on 23 August, 2018.

- 43 -

There are four types of the character forms. A
regional tendency has emerged, judging from the
distribution.
Those characters that are circled in blue andthose that are marked in red are found exclusively
in Yunnan Province. Those that are marked inblue are observed in Shuangbai (S) and Mojiang(S), while those that are marked in red are foundin Luquan (E), Shuangbai and Mojiang.
The characters in pink are exclusively foundin Guizhou Province, in Weining (E), Dafang (E)and Panxian (E).
The characters circled in turquoise are foundin the north, including Xide (N) in Sichuan andWeining and Dafang in Guizhou.
In spite of the differences in the shapes of thecharacters, the provisional etymons for [ɣɯ21] in
Xide, [dʑu33] in Dafang and [gɒ11] in Lunan(SE) 28 are PTB *(k/g)ra (‘hear’/ ‘listen’/ ‘sound’),and PLB *gla2 (‘hear’/ ‘listen’).

There is a clear regional tendency for thecharacters meaning ‘know’.
The characters marked in blue are distributed
broadly, with the exception of the southwesternarea of the map, not appearing in Shuangbai (S)or Mojiang (S) of the Southern dialectal area, in
Yunnan Province.
For their part, the characters circled in red arefound only in Shuangbai and Mojiang, and thosemarked in green are relatively restricted,
appearing in the northwestern area, in Xide (N)and Luquan.

28 In STEDT, the data for Sani are cited from TBL(1992) and the tone is given as 11. This is slightly
different from the tone 21 seen on the map, but thewords can nevertheless be regarded as the same, given

their identical word formation and the striking
similarity in their pronunciations.

- 44 -

Three types of the character forms exist, and theirdistribution exhibits regional distinctions.
The characters marked in red are only foundin Shuangbai (S) and Mojiang (S), whereas thosecircled in green are exclusively observed in
Luquan (E) and Lunan (SE).
The characters marked in blue are mostwidely distributed, appearing everywhere except
Longlin (E).

Interestingly, the characters marked in blue arefound in both the northernmost and thesouthernmost areas, Xide (N) and Mojiang (S).
The characters circled in red and their
allographs, shaded in red, are distributed over thevast area stretching between Xide and Mojiang.

- 45 -

The characters circled in blue appear to form agroup. However, more data are needed to clarify
the correlation among them and demonstrate how
their shapes have changed.
The characters marked in red are only foundin Luquan (E) and Mojiang (S), despite theirdialectal distinction.
The character marked with a green circle andthe one marked by a red one are phonetically andformally different from the others that appear on
the map. Further investigation is needed on their
etymons and the origins of their character forms.

Several words, such as, [ʑi21] in Dafang (E) and[ʐi33] in Lunan (SE), are the first syllable of amore-than-two-syllable word meaning “water”,
so they are not discussed here.
In the Guizhou area, a common form isrecognised among the characters marked in blue,
from Weining (E), Dafang (E) and Panxian (E).
Then, the characters indicated by a red circle
are only found in Xide (N) and Luquan (E). They
do show a striking resemblance in their forms, but
their phonetic values are different. These
circumstances suggest that they should be used
logographically.
Two characters highlighted in green appear tobear an allographic relationship to each other.
Their character forms bear a certain similarity,
but their phonetic values do not relate at all.
Further research is required to unravel this.

- 46 -

The characters marked in blue are exclusively
found in the Guizhou area, namely in Dafang (E)and Panxian (E), while those in green are
observed only in Weining (E) and Luquan (E).
Those four characters are distributed in the
Eastern dialectic area.
The characters marked in red exhibit a wider
range than the ones marked in blue.
It is notable that the character shaded inturquoise seems to be a borrowing from the
Chinese 飞.
It appears that the characters marked in red
may correlate with those in green, as is evident
from an examination of their shapes.

A certain regional tendency exists regarding thisword.
On the one hand, one group consists of thethree characters circled in green, found in the
Guizhou area, in Weining (E), Dafang (E) andPanxian (E). However, on the other hand, thecharacters marked in blue are distributed
exclusively in the Yunnan area. The characters
indicated by a red circle are only found in Xide(N) and Luquan (E), in the northwestern part ofthe map.

- 47 -

The characters marked in blue exhibit a common
form at all sites.

The characters circled in blue are the most widelydistributed, and thus, they can be considered thecommon form. All of them are used in the word‘sleep’ 29.

29 See ‘60. Sleep’ for details.

- 48 -

The characters marked in blue are most broadly
distributed, and these may be considered thecommon form.
The character found in Shuangbai (S), here
circled in red, appears to be a phonetic loan froma homophonous word meaning ‘two’.

The characters that are marked in blue areexclusively found within the Eastern dialecticarea, including in Luquan, Dafang and Panxian.
The characters shaded in blue are distributed
around the periphery of the areas mentioned
above, and these latter appear to be similar to theformer. The interrelationship of these should be
investigated further.
The characters circled in red are observed in
Xide (N) and Longlin (E), while the one inLonglin appears to be a simplified version of the
one in Xide. They are found across an area whereother types of characters are distributed. Thissituation shows an ABA distribution, implyingthat the characters in the red circles can be
anticipated to be relatively older than the others.

- 49 -

Although two separate groups of characters areindicated, one in blue and one in red, there may
be a certain amount of interrelation.
The characters marked in blue are only foundin the northern part of the map, in Xide (N),Luquan (E), Weining (E) and Dafang (E), while
another group of characters, marked in red, aredistributed throughout the entire area with the
exception of Weining.
This suggests that the characters marked in
red are older than the others and should beconsidered to have once been the standard form
for ‘give’.

The characters that are marked in blue are foundmore in the northern part of the map, but thosecircled in red are observed in the south.
The characters that are only found in Weining(E) and Panxian (E) are marked in green.
Those characters that are marked both in red
and in blue, as can be deduced from their forms,
appear to be interrelated. However, the phonetic
values for these categories are different. For thisreason, they are provisionally dealt withseparately. Further, their etymons are thus far
uncertain.

- 50 -

The characters marked in blue are distributed
over the whole area, meaning that we can regard
them as the standard character form forexpressing ‘sun’.
The characters circled in red are only found in
Xide (N), Panxian (E) and Mojiang (S). What isremarkable here is that the phonetic value of thecharacter in Xide does not resemble that of theothers. This implies that there must have been alogographic use and that a lexical replacement
likely occurred in Xide.
The same phenomenon is also found among
the characters circled in green. These appear in
Xide, Luquan (E), Weining (E) and Dafang (E),in the north. The character found in Xide is
pronounced [bu33], and its most similar allographin Luquan is pronounced [ȵi33], the one in
Weining is pronounced [ȵe21] and the fourth,another in Dafang is pronounced [ȵi21]. Thissuggests that lexical replacement occurred in
Xide and that this character was logographic.

The characters circled in blue are found in most
locales, and those shaded in blue are limited to
Dafang (E), Shuangbai (S), Mojiang (S) andLunan (SE). These groups appear to beinterrelated and to be allographic to each other.
Their wide distribution indicates that they could
signify logographic or pictographic additions, as
could easily be concluded from their forms.
The characters circled in green are found in
Luquan (E), Shuangbai and Lunan, whereas thoseshaded in green appear in Weining (E) andMojiang, slightly further out from the area where
the former are attested. Judging from their forms,
the two groups appear to form one, larger group,or in other words, they are in an allographic
relation. However, the phonetic values for thegreen-shaded attestations are different from thosewithin the green circles. This suggests that bothsets represent logographic adoptions.
The characters circled or shaded in pink are
only found in the Guizhou area, namely, Weining,
Dafang and Panxian (E). Their appearance might
constitute a phonetic loan. The characters circled
in red are found in the northernmost site, Xide (N),and in the southernmost, Mojiang. It is probablethat they are older than the others whose phonetic
values are close to theirs.
- 51 -

It is clear from the map that a common character
form can be set, which is circled in blue.
Although the form shaded in blue appears more
complex than the others, in most places, thecommon form is observed.
According to STEDT 30, the etymons for thisword are PTB *g(r/l)a:y (‘scatter’/ ‘sow’/‘dispersed widely’/ ‘star’), PLB *ʔ-grəy1 (‘star’)and PL *C-gray1 (‘star’), being pronounced[tɕɨ33] in Xide (N) 31and [tsɛ55] in Mojiang (S).

The map makes it clear that a common character
form, marked in blue, occurs.
However, the characters circled in red are to
be found in the eastern part of the map, that is, inDafang (E) and Longlin (E). They might be aderived from the more common form; however,more data comparing the sites are needed to allow
for further investigation.

30 Last access date, 25 August, 2018.
31 The vowel [-ɿ] in STEDT and the resources I refer

to is written [-ɨ] here due to the unavailability of thenecessary font in the application used to draw the maps.

- 52 -

These characters can be roughly divided into twogroups, of which one is marked in blue and theother is marked in red.
The group in blue is attested over awidespread area, but the red group is separately
distributed in the northernmost site, Xide (N), andin the southernmost ones, Mojiang (S) and Lunan(SE).
Judging from the shapes of the characters, theblue group characters appear more pictographic
than the red ones. Within the blue group, thecircled characters appear to be more simplified
than the shaded ones. Their distribution appears
to indicate a clear regional distinction. The
characters that are circled in blue are found only
in south, while those shaded in blue are found in
the north area, mainly Guizhou Province.

A common character form can be perceived
throughout; its iterations are here indicated byblue circles.
This common form is found over the wholearea, and no obvious allograph appears.

- 53 -

A character meaning ‘stone’ appears in almost
everywhere, except Xide (N) and Mojiang (S).

Here, two distinctive groups are found, one
circled in blue and the other in red. Although theymight be interrelated, further research is needed
to clarify this.

- 54 -

The common character forms are observed in the
Eastern dialectic area, Weining, Dafang, Panxianand Luquan, in addition to Mojiang (S).

The common character form is marked in blue.

- 55 -

The character found in Dafang (E), circled ingreen, is a phonetic loan, borrowed due to its
homophony with the character meaning ‘nine’,
which is likely borrowed from the Chinese 九.
The characters marked in blue are distributedin the southwestern area of the map, Yunnan
Province and Guangxi Autonomous Region.
The characters shaded in red are notable. In
Shuangbai (S) and Mojiang (S), they are
pronounced as [me33] or [mɛ33], while in Panxian(E), the phonetic value given is [khɯ33]. This may
be because a lexical replacement occurred in
Panxian.

The characters marked in blue are exclusively
found in the Eastern dialect area, with the
exception of Longlin.
The characters marked in red are foundrelatively in the southwestern area, in Shuangbai(S), Mojiang (S) and Lunan (SE), in spite of thedialectal distinction. Thus, it appears to be best
categorised as a regional feature because ofproximity.
The characters marked in blue and those in
red appear to be interrelated; in other words, theones circled in red appear to be a simplified
version of their counterparts. More data from
Shuangbai, Mojiang and Lunan are needed.
It is notable that the characters marked ingreen are observed separately at the northernmost
site, Xide (N) and the southernmost site, Mojiang.
This suggests that these instances can be expected
to be older than the others.

- 56 -

The characters that are circled in blue are foundexclusively in the Eastern dialect area, and theone shaded in blue is observed only in Xide (N),apparently an allograph.
Interestingly, the characters circled in red arefound in northernmost site, Xide and thesouthernmost site, Mojiang (S). This indicatesthat they are likely older than others, although
here too, further investigation is necessary.
Another notable matter is apparent here,
concerning the characters shaded in green,
distributed in Xide and Lunan (SE). Their forms
are almost identical, but their phonetic values arenot. If the word formation and pronunciation forboth sites are compared, they show a remarkable
resemblance. Furthermore, if we consider thephonetic value and the shape of the charactershaded blue in Xide, it is probable, and morenatural to think, that a lexical replacement
occurred for the character shaded green in Lunan.

Only two characters appear to be in common
between Weining (E) and Dafang (E).

- 57 -

The characters that are marked in blue and arefound in Weining (E) and Dafang (E) are
identical.
The characters circled in red are more widely
observed, and the one shaded in red may be an
allograph of those.
The characters marked in green are regarded
as forming a group together, in spite of theappearance of certain differences in their shapes
and phonetic values.

There are two groups, marked here in blue and in
red.
Note that the characters for both groups arefound at the northernmost site, Xide (N), and thesouthernmost site, Mojiang (S), although theirphonetic values are completely different.

- 58 -

The characters circled in red are distributed in
between the north and south, while those in blue
are only found in the north.

The map makes it obvious that the charactersmarked in blue are found at almost all sites.
On the other hand, the characters circled in
red are only observed in the southwestern area ofthe map. This may indicate a phonetic loan, andthe usage may be regional.

- 59 -

The characters that are circled in red are
distributed over almost all the study area, andallographs are found in Luquan (E) and Lunan(SE), which are shaded in red.
Judging from the wide distribution of thischaracter, its spread appears to have been
logographic. Furthermore, it is remarkable thatthese appear to have been used for a long period,
over the entire area, with very few changes intheir form.

The characters marked in green are widelydistributed, only not appearing in Xide (N) andWeining (E).
The initial consonants begin with either an
alveolar or alveolo-palatal nasal, while in Xideand Weining, even in Dafang (E), the phonetic
value for each character is so different, as [ɬo21] in
Xide, [ɦo55] in Weining and [hʊ55] in Dafang.
Interestingly, particularly in Dafang, almost
identical characters bear different phonetic values,
such as [nu55] and [hʊ55]. It is highly probable that
this is due to a phonological change, although the
etymon is uncertain.

- 60 -

The characters in blue circles are distributed overthe entire area. Those shaded in blue areallographs of the first. This original character has
been deduced to be a pictograph depicting ‘snake’,
and the word meaning ‘yellow’ is a homophone
for this one. Therefore, the characters for aphonetic loan are used over the entire area.

The characters circled in blue are the most
broadly distributed ones, and the ones in red may
be their allographs, although further study of thispoint is needed.
It should be noted that the characters circled
in red are found in the northernmost site, Xide (N),as well as on the southern end of the map, in
Lunan (SE) and Mojiang (S).
Judging from the phonetic difference between
the instance in Lunan and the others, the spread
appears to have been logographic.

- 61 -

There is regional distinction that pertains to theword ‘black’.
The characters circled in blue are the mostwidely distributed, whereas those in red areobserved only at the southwestern end of the map.

At most sites, the word ‘night’ is disyllabic. The
first syllable is written with a common character
form, circled in blue.
However, no common form has been found
for the second syllable.

- 62 -

The characters circled in green are found in
Luquan (E) and Lunan (SE), while those in blue
are observed in Luquan and Panxian (E).
Then, the characters circled in red are foundin Weining (E) and Longlin (E). As in the point
between them, Panxian, another word, which has
a similarity to that of Luquan, is used, theexpressions in Weining and Longlin might
represent older version of the word.
The character circled in pink is a phonetic
loan from a character meaning ‘three’, apparently
borrowed from the Chinese 三.
The shapes and phonetic closeness of thecharacters shaded in turquoise, found in Dafang(E) and Lunan indicate that they may be in an
allographic relation.

The characters marked in blue are distributed in
Dafang (E) and Lunan (SE), while those marked
in red are found in Luquan (E) and Lunan.
The characters shaded in green, which areobserved in Lunan and Mojiang (S), bear someresemblance to these. They could be consideredallographs.
Interestingly, on the whole, all types of thecharacters appear in Lunan.

- 63 -

The characters circled in blue are found in thenortheast area of the map, and their phonetic
values bear a striking resemblance to each other.
The characters circled and shaded red appear
to be in allographic relation, and their phonetic
values are also similar.
It is notable that the character marked in blue
and those marked in red appear in complementary
distribution. In addition, it is intriguing that bothtypes of characters are found in Dafang (E).

The characters meaning ‘cold’ exhibit great
variety.
A regional distinction is evident on the map,with five independent groups of characters.
The characters circled in red appear to beallographic because they are flipped version ofeach other.
The blue group exhibits two identicalcharacters, from Shuangbai (S) and Mojiang (S),and one allograph shaded in blue, in Lunan (SE).
The others each have several allographs, but
not one is observed in more than one place.
The reasons for this variety and regional
isolation of each group remains unclear: morestudy is needed.

- 64 -

A common character shape appears on the map.
The characters circled in blue are concentrated in
the Guizhou area, while those the ones shaded inblue are distributed in the Yunnan area. It appears
that they are in allographic relation.
The etymon of [ɖie21] in Dafang (E) and[dʑi21] in Xide (N) is PTB *m-dyat (‘satiated’),
whereas for [mɯ21] in Mojiang (S), the etymon is
PTB *mwa (‘full’/ ‘satiated’), as asserted by
STEDT 32 . Due to this etymological difference,the phonetic value of the characters found in
Mojiang exhibits a difference from the others.
These characters are pronounced differently fromthose in the other places while always being
written alike indicates a logographic nature,
persisting throughout history.

The characters circled in blue appear in the
Eastern dialect area, especially within Guizhou.
In Luquan (E) and Lunan (SE), although theirdialectal affiliations are different, two seemingly
allographic characters are observed.
In spite of the large distance between Sichuan
and southern Yunnan, similar characters are seenin Xide (N) and Mojiang (S).

32 Last accessed on 25 August, 2018.

- 65 -

Several groups appear for the word ‘good’. The
most significant feature of this map is that innearly all groups, the allographic characters carrydifferent phonetic values.
First, in the group shaded in blue, thecharacter in Xide (N) is pronounced [va55], andthe ones in Weining (E) and Dafang (E) are [tsu55].
Second, the pronunciation of the charactersshaded in orange is [sa33] in Xide, but the one in
Shuangbai (S) is pronounced [ȵɔ33], Mojiang (S)shows the pronunciation [no55].
Third, regarding the characters shaded ingreen, the one in Xide is [mbo21], but it is [tsho21]
in Luquan (E).
Fourth, the phonetic values of the charactersshaded turquoise are [xɯ33] in Xide and [tsho21]
in Luquan.
Fifth, the phonetic values of the charactersshaded in pink are [ȵu33/ȵʊ33] in Dafang but[tʂɑ21/tʂʌ21] in Lunan (SE). Sixth, the charactersshaded in red are pronounced like [mə33] in
Dafang but pronounced [ŋɚ33] in Longlin (E).
Finally, the last group has characters circled
in green, found in Panxian (E) and Luquan. Theirforms are similar and so are their phonetic values.
The characters circled in blue are concentrated in
the northern part of the map. As their forms makeclear, they are nearly identical, and their phonetic
values also bear a striking resemblance to eachother.
The characters marked in red are distributed
in a row from Xide (N) to Longlin (E). Although
it remains uncertain what the phonetic difference
should be attributed to, it is obvious that thecharacters’ passage has been logographic.
The characters circled in green are found in
Xide and Lunan (SE). The fact that these are used
for expressing the same meaning in spite of theirphonetic differences suggests that they must have
had logographic transitions.

- 66 -

Only one pair of allographs is found in Luquan(E) and Mojiang (S).
The etymon of [fʌ21] in Mojiang is PTB *s-wi⪤ *s-way (‘dried up’/ ‘thirsty’), according to
STEDT 33.

The characters marked in blue are distributed
over most regions.
The characters marked in red have, however,
only been observed in Mojiang (S) and Lunan(SE). This seems to indicate a regional
propagation because at least in the resources used
for this study, these characters are not used forthis word.

33 Last access on the 25 August, 2018.

- 67 -

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