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''Geba'' is a 
Naxi Pictographic and Syllabographic Scripts: Research notes toward a Unicode encoding of Naxi
Syllabary writing systems Naxi language Writing systems derived from the Chinese {{writingsystem-stub
syllabic
Syllabic may refer to:
*Syllable, a unit of speech sound, considered the building block of words
**Syllabic consonant, a consonant that forms the nucleus of a syllable
*Syllabary, writing system using symbols for syllables
*Abugida, writing system ...
script for the Naxi language
Naxi (Naqxi ), also known as ''Nakhi, Nasi, Lomi, Moso, Mo-su'', is a Sino-Tibetan language or group of languages spoken by some 310,000 people, most of whom live in or around Lijiang City Yulong Naxi Autonomous County of the province of Yunnan, ...
. It is called ''¹Ggo¹baw'' in Naxi, adapted as ''Geba'', 哥巴, in Chinese. Some glyphs resemble the Yi script
The Yi script (Yi: ; ) is an umbrella term for 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 vari ...
, and some appear to be adaptations of Chinese characters
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...
. ''Geba'' is used only to transcribe mantra
A mantra (Pali: ''manta'') or mantram (मन्त्रम्) is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words in Sanskrit, Pali and other languages believed by practitioners to have religious, ma ...
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.
See also
*Naxi script
The Naxi language of southwestern China may be written in the syllabic ''geba'' script. There is also a Naxi tradition of pictographic symbols called ''dongba''; this may sometimes be glossed with ''geba'' for clarification, since a ''dongba'' t ...
External links
*Dr. Richard S. CookNaxi Pictographic and Syllabographic Scripts: Research notes toward a Unicode encoding of Naxi
Syllabary writing systems Naxi language Writing systems derived from the Chinese {{writingsystem-stub