Tangut transliteration character

It is used for transliteration in Tangut writing. Li Fanwen’s Tangut–Chinese dictionary gives that gloss: a transliteration spells a word in another script by sound.

Around 1036, the Western Xia promoted Tangut writing to strengthen Tangut identity and distinguish its state from Song China. Its forms draw on Chinese writing, but Tangut is a separate script for another language; 𗯄 is not Chinese.

Among the earliest surviving records, an official Tangut document dates to 1072; a fragment may be older, from 1070/71. After the Western Xia fell to Mongol forces in 1227, Tangut writing continued under Yuan and Ming rule, including in Buddhist books, before becoming obsolete by the end of the Ming.