Tangut Character 17E08

It has a word reading and a separate transliteration reading.

Two Tangut reference works, Homophones Edition B and Sea of Writing, record a word reading reconstructed as djwu, meaning “to squeeze lice to death,” and a second, djwi, used to represent a sound in transliteration. These scholarly spellings label reconstructed readings; they are not English pronunciation guides.

Homophones Edition A records the word entry but not the transliteration entry; Edition B records both. That difference suggests the transliteration use was recognized later, while the written character stayed the same.

Why was the Tangut script created?

It served Western Xia government and cultural life.

The Tangut script took shape around 1036 under Western Xia ruler Li Yuanhao; the official Yeli Renrong is associated with putting it into use. It supported administration, efforts to build the state, and Buddhist texts translated into Tangut. Its forms drew on Chinese ways of composing characters while marking Tangut identity apart from Song China; its development also followed an earlier Khitan example.

An official document sent to a military inspector in Guazhou, dated 1072, is described as the earliest Tangut document passed down to us. Other surviving materials include Buddhist scriptures, translations of Chinese works, dictionaries, and administrative writing; this record does not date the first appearance of 𗸈.