Khitan Small-Script Consonant

It is transcribed dź or dz. Kane writes dź; Wu and Janhunen write dz. These are Latin-letter renderings of one Khitan consonant, not separate meanings. The glyph contributes sound within a spelling rather than naming an object by itself.

Traditional accounts credit Yelü Diela with devising it around 925, though a 2026 study argues practical standardization came later; it identifies Wugulin Taishi’s 1051 grave inscription as the earliest securely dated surviving text. The small script was made to write Khitan alongside the distinct Khitan Large Script across Liao, Qara Khitai and Jin rule; it also influenced Jurchen writing. Research describes Chinese-derived forms with phonetic influence from Uyghur, though surviving forms have few visual similarities to Uyghur. Sound signs typically combine into words in vertical columns, so a standalone 𘱴 shows only part of a spelling.