Learn Nuosu Through Topics You Actually Care About

LingoBear creates short Nuosu passages on topics you choose. Tap any word for an instant English translation and build your vocabulary as you read. Sino-Tibetan (Loloish) language of the Yi people in Sichuan, written in the modern Yi syllabary (819 official syllables since 1980), ~2M speakers.

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Every word in your Nuosu reading passage is clickable. Get English translations and grammar help as you read the modern Yi syllabary.

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Type any topic and LingoBear generates a fresh Nuosu reading passage — useful when published material is concentrated in Liangshan.

What is Nuosu and where is it spoken?

Nuosu (also called Northern Yi or Sichuan Yi) is the most widely spoken Loloish language within the Sino-Tibetan family, used by around 2 million Yi people in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in southwestern Sichuan, China. It is one of around six major Yi languages, which together have over 4 million speakers across China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.

What is the modern Yi script?

Traditional Yi writing — a logographic script with thousands of characters — was simplified in 1974 and officially standardised in 1980 into a modern syllabary of 819 syllables (each a unique character), with diacritics for one of four tones. Nuosu is normally written left to right in this syllabary today, although historic texts and ritual writings still use the older logographic forms.