Khitan Small Script Sign 18C81

Researchers give it different reconstructed readings.

Daniel Kane’s index lists źuŋ; Wu and Janhunen give zhung. These are competing reconstructions of a Khitan sound, not English translations. The small script usually spells words with two to eight sound signs grouped together, while some signs stand for whole words.

When was Khitan small script used?

It was created around 925 to write the Khitan language.

Yelü Diela, brother of Liao founder Yelü Abaoji, created the script. Its character shapes drew on Chinese writing; its sound-based system was said to be inspired by Uyghur writing. The Liao and Qara Khitai (Western Liao) states and the Jin dynasty used Khitan script alongside Chinese. Surviving small-script texts include funerary inscriptions carved on stone for Khitan nobles, as well as monuments, mirrors and tallies.

Khitan writing was officially abolished by the Jin court in 1191. Later Jurchen writing drew on both Khitan scripts. Stone inscriptions identified in 1922 renewed study of the script, which remains only partly deciphered.

Why does 𘲁 look different in some fonts?

Typeface changes its drawn form, not its Unicode identity.

BabelStone Khitan Small Linear v. 16.000 uses a Chinese Song/Ming style, while the Unicode chart shows a different design. These are font styles for one character. Traditional Khitan writing used vertical columns and grouped word clusters, so an isolated glyph laid out horizontally loses those original layout cues.