Tangut character for “speak”

It means “to speak” in Tangut. Scholars conventionally transcribe its reconstructed reading as śjwa.

The Tangut script was created around 1036 under Western Xia’s first emperor to write Tangut, a language spoken in northwestern China. Its square style drew on Chinese writing, but it is a separate script.

Tangut texts include official, private, and religious works. After the Mongol conquest, the script remained in use under the Yuan and Ming; it became obsolete by the end of the Ming and was rediscovered in the late 19th century.