''Geba'' is a syllabic script for the

Naxi language Naxi (), also known as ''Nakhi'', ''Nasi'', ''Lomi'', ''Moso'', or ''Mo-su'', is a Sino-Tibetan language or group of languages spoken by approximately 310,000 Nakhi people, most of whom live in or around Yulong Naxi Autonomous County in the pr ...

. It is called ''¹Ggo¹baw'' in Naxi, adapted as ''Geba'', 哥巴, in Chinese. Some glyphs resemble the

Yi script The Yi scripts (; ) are two scripts used to write the Yi languages; Classical Yi (an ideogram script), and the later Yi syllabary. The script is historically known in Chinese as ''Cuan Wen'' () or ''Wei Shu'' () and various other names (), amon ...

, and some appear to be adaptations of

Chinese characters Chinese characters are logographs used Written Chinese, to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represe ...

. ''Geba'' is used only to transcribe

mantra A mantra ( ; Pali: ''mantra'') or mantram (Devanagari: मन्त्रम्) is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words (most often in an Indo-Iranian language like Sanskrit or Avestan) belie ...

s, and there are few texts, though it is sometimes used to annotate ''dongba'' pictographs. Geba's phonetics can vary depending on who is using it. Symbols do not have fixed phonetic values, and they may have the same phonetic values as well. Manuscripts in the Yunnan Nationalities Museum - DSC04026

Manuscripts in the Yunnan Nationalities Museum - DSC04026

External links

*Dr. Richard S. Cook
Naxi Pictographic and Syllabographic Scripts: Research notes toward a Unicode encoding of Naxi

Syllabary writing systems Naxi language Writing systems derived from Chinese characters {{writingsystem-stub

See also

External links