Khitan Small Script Character 18C97

𘲗 belongs to Khitan small script, made to write the Khitan language; its Unicode name is an identifier, not a Khitan word. The script combines signs for whole words with signs for sounds. It remains only partly deciphered, so a character's reading can depend on its inscription context.

Text symbol

What 𘲗 means

The Unicode name does not tell you its Khitan reading.

Khitan small script mixes logograms (signs for whole words) and phonograms (signs for sounds), usually grouped to spell one word. A single character may be a whole-word sign or one piece of a cluster.

Records credit Yelü Diela with devising it around 925. Chinese-character forms shaped its design; accounts also report an Uyghur-writing influence. The earliest surviving datable text is a 1053 epitaph. Under the Jin dynasty that replaced the Khitan-led Liao dynasty, Khitan writing stayed in use until the court abolished it in 1191. The Jurchens, who founded the Jin dynasty, also adapted Khitan models for their own scripts.

Part of the collection

𘬣

Khitan Small Script

Who writes 𘲗

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Questions people ask

Why does 𘲗 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.