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SIL Yi Font
Table of Contents for this web page:
Introduction
Character Inventory
Requirements
License
Downloading and Installing the Font Package
Support
Release History
Introduction
The SIL Yi Font is a single Unicode font for the standardized Yi script used by a large ethnic group in southwestern China.
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The traditional Yi scripts have been in use for centuries, and have a tremendous number of local variants. The script was standardized in the 1970’s by the Chinese government. In the process of standardization, 820 symbols from the traditional scripts of the Liangshan region were chosen to form a syllabary.
The syllable inventory of a speech variety from Xide County, Sichuan was used as the phonological basis for standardization. For the most part there is one symbol per phonologically-distinct syllable and vice-versa. The direction of writing and reading was standardized as left-to-right. Punctuation symbols were borrowed from Chinese, and a diacritic was incorporated into the system to mark one of the tones.
Character Inventory
The font includes a complete set of Yi syllables and radicals (as defined in 
The Unicode Standard, Version 3.0), a basic set of Roman glyphs and various punctuation. Yi Radicals which were added to Unicode 3.2 (U+A4A2..U+A4A3, U+A4B4, U+A4C1, U+A4C5) are not included in the font. Representative samples are below.
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Syllables |
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Radicals |
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Numerals |
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Basic Roman |
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Punctuation and Other Symbols |
Requirements
The SIL Yi font is designed to work on systems and with applications that provide support for TrueType fonts and for Unicode character encoding. It does not include any smart font behavior.
License
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http://scripts.sil.org/)., with Reserved Font Name “SIL”.
Downloading and Installing the Font Package
| Downloads | Installation and Use | ||
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If you are uncertain what to do with a .zip file, see Decompression Utilities, Downloading & Installation Tips. Within the archive is the font file and documentation. Once the files are decompressed, look in the newly created SILYI directory for the Users Guide (YIUGUIDE.PDF). Note that you will need This font can be installed using standard font installation procedures for the given operating-system platform. Note that certain applications may not see the new font immediately. You may have to quit and restart the application for the font to become available. The Keyman source file is also a part of this package. It can be used to input Yi on Linux using KMFL. |
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This package contains the same files as SILYiOFL1.2.zip plus the Fontographer, Keyman and User's Guide source files. If you are uncertain what to do with a .zip file, see Decompression Utilities, Downloading & Installation Tips. Within the archive is the font file and documentation. Once the files are decompressed, look in the newly created SILYI directory for the Users Guide (YIUGUIDE.PDF). Note that you will need |
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This is an installer for a Yi Keyman keyboard. This keyboard was developed for keyboarding Yi. The SIL Yi font is not a part of this package, as you should be able to use any Unicode Yi font with the keyboard. If you download this package, you must have Keyman already installed. (For guidelines on who can use Keyman and for downloading, go to: http://www.tavultesoft.com.) You can just double-click SILYiOFL1.2.kmp to install the keyboard package and font. Once installed, readme file can be found at . There is only minimal documentation. There is no keyboarding chart. |
Support
As these fonts and utilities are distributed at no cost, we are unable to provide a commercial level of personal technical support. We will, however, try to resolve problems that are reported to us.
We do hope that you will report problems so they can be addressed in future releases. Even if you are not having any specific problems, but have an idea on how this system could be improved, we want to hear your ideas and suggestions.
Please note that these fonts are intended for use by experienced computer users. Installing and using these fonts is not a trivial matter. The most effective technical support is usually provided by an experienced computer user who can personally sit down with you at your computer to troubleshoot the problem.
General troubleshooting information, including frequently asked questions, can be found in the documentation. Additional information is also available on the general Font FAQ page. If that fails to answer your question you can contact us at:
User Support
SIL International
Non-Roman Script Initiative
7500 W. Camp Wisdom Rd.
Dallas, TX 75236
USA
Email: 
SIL_fonts@sil.org
Release History
19 April 2007 Version 1.2 OFL release.
September 2002 Keyman keyboard released
10 April 2000 Version 1.1 released.
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Provided by SIL's Non-Roman Script Initiative. Contact us at nrsi@sil.org.