What 𘯎 means
It is a phonogram reconstructed as ón. That italic form is a scholarly transliteration: Latin letters used to represent a Khitan sound. Phonograms (sound signs) usually join in word-sized clusters. Read each cluster left to right, then top to bottom; traditional columns run downward and right to left. Horizontal linear display is also supported, though it does not reproduce an inscription’s layout.
When did Khitan Small Script begin?
Its start date is disputed. Traditional accounts in the History of Liao, a dynastic chronicle, date its creation to 924 or 925 and credit Yelü Diela, reporting Uyghur-script inspiration despite few visual similarities. A 2026 study argues it was systematized under the later Liao emperor Shengzong and cites the 1051 Wugulin Taishi tomb inscription as the earliest securely dated surviving small-script text. Khitan Small and Large Script both wrote Khitan in the Liao, Western Liao, and Jin periods. Surviving small-script writing is chiefly on royal and aristocratic tombs, but also appears on monuments, bronze mirrors, tallies, non-circulating coins, and a jade cup.
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Who writes 𘯎
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Questions people ask
1Why does 𘯎 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 𘯎
- Search it as
- khitan phonogram · khitan ón · khitan sound sign · khitan inscription
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
𘯎\18BCECodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.