1698 Nanzhao Empire (738–937) Luodian Kingdom (羅甸國) of the Bole clan in present-day Luodian County, Yunnan Badedian Kingdom of the Mangbu Azhe clan in present-day Zhenxiong Luogui Kingdom (羅鬼國) (10th century–1278) in Guizhou Ziqi Kingdom (Yushi) (自杞國) (1100–1260) of the Awangren clan in present-day Xingyi, Guizhou Kingdom of Shu (1621–1629), a short-lived state during the She-An Rebellion Language The Chinese government recognizes six mutually unintelligible Yi languages, from various branches of the Loloish family: Northern Yi (Nuosu 诺苏) Western Yi (Lalo 腊罗) Central Yi (Lolopo 倮倮泼) Southern Yi (Nisu 尼苏) Southeastern Yi (Sani 撒尼) Eastern Yi (Nasu 纳苏) Northern Yi is the largest with some two million speakers and is the basis of the literary language. It is an analytic language. There are also ethnically Yi languages of Vietnam which use the Yi script, such as Mantsi. Many Yi in Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi know Standard Chinese and code-switching between Yi and Chinese is common. Script The Yi script was originally logosyllabic like Chinese and dates to at least the 13th century, but seems to be completely independent of any other known script. Until the early 20th century, usage of this script was primarily the domain of bimo priests for transmitting ritual texts from generation to generation. It was not until the mid-twentieth century that elite families in Liangshan began to use the script for non-religious purposes, such as letter writing. There were perhaps 10,000 characters, many of which were regional, since the script had never been standardized across the Yi peoples. A number of works of history, literature and medicine, as well as genealogies of the ruling families, written in the Old Yi script are still in use and there are Old Yi stone tablets and steles in the area. An attempt to romanize the script was made in the 1950s but it failed to gain traction. In the 1970s and 1980s, the traditional script was standardized into a syllabary. Syllabic Yi is widely used in books, newspapers, street signs, and education, although with increasing influence from Chinese. Name The Yi use a son-father patronymic naming system. The last character of the father's name transfers to become the first character of the son's name. The last character of the son's name is then used as the first character of the grandson's name. A complete Yi name is composed of the clan name, the branch clan name, the father's name,