The Relationship Between Ersu Shaba Script and Naxi Dongba Script
This article examines the relationship between Ersu Shaba script, used by the Ersu Tibetan people of Sichuan for religious texts and calendars, and Naxi Dongba script. Both scripts are ideographic and morpho-syllabic (word/phrase-based rather than precisely representing speech), employing pictographic, ideographic (huiyi), and suggestive (shiyi) methods of character formation, as well as color and spatial position to convey or distinguish meaning. Building on prior work by Wang Yuanlu and Nishida Tatsuo, who both suggested systemic links between the two scripts, the author argues Ersu Shaba and Naxi Dongba are genetically related, proposing two possible scenarios: either Naxi Dongba script developed from Ersu Shaba script, or both independently evolved from a common ancestral script. The paper reviews existing scholarship and script features to support further investigation into this shared origin hypothesis, contributing to comparative studies of early Chinese minority writing systems.
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