Khitan Character 18BAE

It identifies a Khitan writing sign; it is not an English gloss.

Khitan Small Script used signs for sounds as well as signs that represented words. Many Khitan words were spelled by grouping sound signs into compact blocks, so the reading comes from the full group and its context. This character’s Unicode label gives its code-based identity, not a word translation.

The Liao court developed the small script around 925 CE to write Khitan. Traditional accounts credit Yelü Diela, the Liao founder’s younger brother, with its creation and link its design to Uyghur writing. The earliest surviving dated small-script epitaph is from 1053 CE, a tomb inscription for the Khitan noble Yelü Zongjiao.

It appeared alongside Khitan Large Script and Chinese writing, then continued under the Jin after Liao fell. A Jin decree in 1191 ended the court’s use of Khitan writing in official histories. Khitan script traditions later served as models for Jurchen writing; that historical link does not make their characters interchangeable.

Why can Khitan text form blocks?

Khitan fonts can shape runs of signs into word-blocks. Khitan was written in vertical columns from right to left. Within a word-block, signs are read left to right and then top to bottom. A single character shows its regular glyph; a cluster of characters can be shaped and positioned into a compact block. A linear layout displays the characters one by one, so the writing can look different even though the signs are unchanged.