An Investigation and Analysis of the Dongba Script's Ability to Record the Naxi Language
This fieldwork-based study investigates how well Naxi Dongba script — a living pictographic writing system created by Dongba priests — can record spoken Naxi. The authors had four Dongba priests from different villages (Baidi, Dongba, Lijiang, and Sichuan's Lugu Lake area) independently write out nine sentences (everyday statements, a slogan, and two old proverbs) in Dongba script, then compared the results character by character. Agreement on ordinary colloquial sentences was low (16-50%), concentrated in high-frequency core vocabulary, while agreement on the two traditional proverbs reached 80%, suggesting stability in long-transmitted fixed texts. The comparison reveals recurring patterns: scripture-writing habits (pictorial character grouping, 'supplementary characters') carrying over into practical use, and inconsistent choice of phonetic-loan characters for the same word. The authors argue Dongba script could serve as the Naxi people's general-purpose script but needs standardization — preferring proper characters over loans, unifying homophone choices, extending meanings rather than multiplying characters, and building phono-semantic 'character families' — and note it has even been adapted experimentally to transcribe Tibetan and English.
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