What 𗴺 means
It means “mother” in Tangut. Scholars reconstruct its reading roughly as “myah” in one syllable, with the y-sound in “yes,” or “mah”; the scholarly spellings are mja¹ and ma¹. Tangut manuscripts give Tibetan phonetic glosses—notes written in Tibetan to record how a Tangut word sounded. A memorial inscription, text carved to remember someone, also uses the character in a phrase translated “mother.”
The Tangut script was introduced in 1036 to strengthen the Tangut state’s government and establish a distinct written identity alongside Song China, a neighboring Chinese dynasty. It served the Tangut Buddhist Canon, a collection of Buddhist scriptures, and other texts. Its forms were influenced by Chinese writing. The Tangut court also followed an earlier precedent: the Khitan state had created its own script for government.
Historical and scholarly; it suits discussion of Tangut language, texts, and history.
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Who writes 𗴺
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Questions people ask
2Is 𗴺 the Chinese character 母?
No. Both can be translated as “mother,” but 𗴺 is Tangut and 母 is Chinese; the shared translation does not make them interchangeable.
Why does 𗴺 show as a box?
The font being used may lack Tangut coverage or display the character incorrectly. Choose a font that supports Tangut characters.
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How to type or find 𗴺
- Search it as
- mother · mom · mja · ma · Tangut · Xixia
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
𗴺\17D3ACodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.