Tangut character 18376

Its reading is reconstructed; a plain English meaning is not. Tangut dictionaries associate 𘍶 with Li Fanwen entry L5073. Specialists reconstruct its reading as ɣwər¹; the initial ɣ is a voiced friction sound made at the back of the mouth. This is a scholarly pronunciation, not an English gloss. The entry and surrounding Tangut text supply the word’s sense.

The Tangut script was created to write the Tangut language of the Western Xia state in northwestern China. Created around 1036 under its first emperor, it formed part of state-building and expressed a distinct political identity. Tangut texts included a Buddhist canon—a collection of Buddhist scriptures—and translations of Chinese Buddhist and Confucian works, military treatises, encyclopedias, and literature. Its characters were modeled on Chinese writing and drew on Khitan precedents, but Tangut is a separate script.

The 12th-century Sea of Writing, a Tangut lexicon, lists 𘍶 at entry 88.121. A Tangut manuscript fragment from Khara-Khoto, dated to the 12th or early 13th century, is another trace of this writing tradition. After Western Xia fell, Tangut continued in Yuan and Ming texts before the script became obsolete.

Why does 𘍶 look like a box on my device?

It needs a font with Tangut coverage. Unicode identifies 𘍶, but the installed font draws it. Without Tangut coverage, software may show a missing-glyph box. Unicode 16.0.0 describes variant Tangut glyph forms, so fonts may show different historical shapes. For typing, configure the RIME input method with a Tangut-specific layout such as Tangut Cangjie; a Tangut-capable font is also required.