Khitan Small Script Character 18C37

No dependable one-character gloss is established. Khitan writing combines logograms (signs for whole words) with phonograms (signs for sounds), often in clusters. Published Khitan character mappings identify this shape but give no dependable standalone reading for 𘰷.

How did Khitan writing develop?

It was created to write the Khitan language.

The Khitan Small Script was created about 925 CE. Its forms drew chiefly on Chinese character traditions, while its design was reportedly inspired by Uyghur writing. That describes the script's design history, not the reading of this individual character.

Surviving examples include monuments, tomb inscriptions, correspondence, flags, tallies or badges, examinations, poems, and translations. Known small-script epitaphs date from 1053 to 1171. Khitan writing continued under Jin rule after the Liao period, until an imperial order abolished it in 1191. Jurchen writing was modeled on both Khitan scripts; the Khitan Large Script is a separate sister system.

Why does 𘰷 look different in text?

The font and text layout can change its display.

Unicode 17.0's layout guidance permits encoded Khitan text to appear as separate left-to-right glyphs, rotated vertical text, or stacked clusters. Historical Khitan writing used vertical columns read from right to left. A layout change does not change the encoded character.

Clusters group several characters. Modern scholarly text separates them with spaces; the less common Type B layout uses a special joiner—a formatting character—after the first character. A font with shaping support can arrange neighboring signs as a group; a simpler linear font may leave them side by side.