Typology of signs in Yi writing: a study of Nosu manuscripts
Nosu manuscripts among other tools prepared for a ritual performed by bimo
The classical Yi script is an endangered writing system used by bimo, traditional religious specialists of the Lolo-Burmese speaking Yi nationality in southwestern China. This function involves performing rituals to communicate with the ancestors, appeasing evil ghosts as well as healing the sick and is hereditary – the sacred knowledge, including literacy in classical Yi, is passed on from generation to generation among male members of prestigious clans.
My PhD project aims to provide a linguistic analysis of the writing system, classifying the different structural types of signs and discuss their relationship with the morphemes of the language they denote. These types include “pictographic” signs at different stages of loss of depictiveness, phonetic loans, phonetic-semantic compounds, signs obtained by means of graphic derivation, etc. Classification of the signs combined with a statistical analysis to determine the percentage of each of the structural types will hopefully lead me to conclusions on the typological classification of Yi writing in general.
My PhD project aims to provide a linguistic analysis of the writing system, classifying the different structural types of signs and discuss their relationship with the morphemes of the language they denote. These types include “pictographic” signs at different stages of loss of depictiveness, phonetic loans, phonetic-semantic compounds, signs obtained by means of graphic derivation, etc. Classification of the signs combined with a statistical analysis to determine the percentage of each of the structural types will hopefully lead me to conclusions on the typological classification of Yi writing in general.