What 𘬼 means
The label identifies the sign, not its Khitan reading.
Khitan text runs downward in vertical columns, starting at the right. Within a sound cluster, read signs left to right across each row, then down.
How did Khitan small script develop?
Yelü Diela created it around 925 to write Khitan.
He was the Liao ruler’s brother. Its shapes drew on Chinese characters, while its way of spelling sounds reportedly drew on the writing of Uyghur peoples. It worked alongside the larger Khitan script, continued under Western Liao (Qara Khitai) and the Jin dynasty, and a Jin decree abolished it in 1191. Most surviving examples are stone memorials to nobles. The Jurchen, who founded Jin, later modeled their own scripts on both Khitan systems.
Part of the collection
Who writes 𘬼
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Questions people ask
1Why does 𘬼 show as a box on some devices?
It is recent: Unicode added it in version 13.0 (2020), and phones and computers whose fonts are older than that have nothing to draw it with. The character itself is still correct and copies correctly.
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How to type or find 𘬼
- Search it as
- kitan · qidan · 契丹小字
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
𘬼\18B3CCodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.