Khitan Small Script character 18C0C

𘰌 is one character in the Khitan small script, a medieval system for writing Khitan. It survives in a partly deciphered body of inscriptions, where scholars reconstruct readings from the writing around it.

Text symbol

What 𘰌 means

The Unicode name identifies the sign, not its historical reading.

Khitan small script combines whole-word signs with sound signs, which usually form compact clusters. Its text traditionally runs in vertical columns read right to left; signs inside each cluster run left to right, then top to bottom.

Why did Khitan use a small script?

It gave writers another way to record the Khitan language.

Traditional Liao-dynasty histories credit Yelü Diela and date the script to about 925. It stood beside Khitan large script; a 2026 study questions this timeline, pointing to a 1051 epitaph as the earliest securely dated surviving example.

Its forms draw on Chinese characters; accounts link its sound system to Uyghur writing. Jurchen rulers of the Jin dynasty later modeled their scripts on Khitan models; a Jin order ended official use in 1191.

Part of the collection

𘬣

Khitan Small Script

Who writes 𘰌

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Questions people ask

Why does 𘰌 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.