Khitan Small Script Character 18BA2

The character name is an ID, not a translation.

Khitan Small Script was used to write Khitan. In this script, a cluster is a group of characters that can spell one word; the common layout puts two signs side by side, followed by a centered sign or another pair. A second layout arranges the group differently, but the Unicode Standard treats the patterns as stylistic choices, not different meanings.

Khitan clusters may be written in vertical columns, in horizontal layouts, or one character at a time. Software needs special layout support to position them correctly, so a simple line may not resemble the source text.

When did Khitan Small Script take shape?

The traditional date is 924 or 925, but the timeline is debated.

A 2026 reassessment argues the script may have been systematized and spread later; the earliest securely dated surviving text is a 1051 tomb inscription for Wugulin Taishi. The study proposes that later standardization also helped administer a multiethnic empire.

It was made to write Khitan, borrowing structural ideas from Chinese characters. After the Liao fell, Jurchen users kept using Khitan script and adapted its models into their own scripts; an imperial order discontinued Khitan-script use in 1191.