Tangut Component-034

𘠡 is a Tangut component, not a complete word.

Tangut was the writing system used in the Western Xia state. Its dictionaries use components to index and describe larger Tangut characters. Components also appear in Ideographic Description Sequences (IDS), a notation for showing how a character is built. This part identifies a character’s construction; on its own, it supplies no fixed translation or pronunciation.

How did Tangut writing develop?

Tangut began as a state script, then served many kinds of writing.

Tangut writing was created around 1036 for Western Xia state-building, official correspondence, and translation of the Buddhist canon. Later Tangut texts include Buddhist, Confucian, military, and literary works translated from Chinese; they also preserve secular Chinese learning and Tibetan material.

Tangut was its own script, with the neighboring Khitan script as a regional parallel; its visual and structural principles also drew on Chinese writing. In the mid-12th century, the Sea of Characters, a Tangut dictionary, analyzed composite characters through their shared parts. That history explains why scholars use components to study Tangut characters.