Khitan glyph 18C52

One list proposes ieˣ. Two scholarly catalogs index it as glyph 326: Kane’s 2009 list gives no reading; Wu and Janhunen’s 2010 list proposes ieˣ. Khitan Small Script signs represent sounds or whole words, so this is a reconstructed sound value, not a word definition.

Yelü Diela devised it around 925 to write Khitan. Its forms draw on Chinese characters; Uyghur writing is also cited as an influence. The earliest known dated text is from 1053; the latest is from 1175. It was used with Chinese and the related Khitan Large Script during the Khitan-led Liao dynasty, and continued under Jin rule until abolition in 1191. Jurchen scripts were modeled on both Khitan scripts. Surviving inscriptions include elite tomb memorials, monuments, mirrors and tallies.