Khitan small-script character 18B02

It records a whole number, rather than a sound.

A 2025 study reads 𘬂 𘯙 as “twenty-three” in a Khitan epitaph, a carved memorial. This is a logogram—a sign for a word or number value; sound signs combine into word-sized groups.

Traditional accounts credit Yelü Diela with creating the script around 925 to write Khitan. The earliest securely dated surviving text is from 1051; a 2026 study argues that the system was formalized later under Liao emperor Shengzong. Its forms drew on Chinese characters, with a proposed influence from the Uyghur script used by Turkic and Uyghur peoples farther west. Neighboring Jurchens adapted Khitan scripts for their own writing; Jin rulers abolished Khitan writing in 1191.