Tangut Character 17A12

Li Fanwen’s Tangut dictionary glosses it as “whispered.”

The Unicode record links 𗨒 to entry L3627 in Tangut scholar Li Fanwen’s 2008 dictionary; its English index gives that gloss. This is a dictionary gloss, not a whole sentence or a Chinese reading.

If someone sends it in a modern message, treat it as a Tangut or Western Xia historical reference unless the surrounding words suggest otherwise.

𗨒 belongs to a historical script

Tangut writing was established as a state script under the first Western Xia emperor around 1036. It gave the kingdom its own script for official, private, and religious works, including a Buddhist canon, and marked an identity alongside Song China. A manuscript found at Khara-khoto in Inner Mongolia, probably from the 12th or early 13th century, shows the script in a copied book.

Tangut remained in use under the Yuan and Ming dynasties, then fell out of use by the end of the Ming dynasty. Its role shifted from a working script in government, private writing, and religion to a subject for readers, scholars, dictionaries, and fonts.

Why does 𗨒 look like Chinese?

Tangut drew on Chinese writing but became a distinct script.

Tangut borrowed visual and character-building ideas from Chinese. The Khitan, a neighboring people, had also created scripts of their own. Tangut is nevertheless a separate script, so familiar-looking strokes do not make 𗨒 a Chinese character or reveal its meaning.

Traditionally, Tangut was written top to bottom in columns ordered right to left; digital text runs horizontally left to right. Tangut has no combining characters—code points that attach marks to another character—so this glyph is a complete character. Its outline depends on the font; a box means the font lacks a Tangut glyph.