Tangut Character 18538

In Tangut dictionaries, it is associated with the word for dragonfly.

An index to a Tangut dictionary pairs entry 4891 with the scholarly Latin-letter transcription tạ and the Chinese character 蜻, used in 蜻蜓 (“dragonfly”). A separate reconstruction places 𘔸 in rhyme row 73 and gives the vowel notation -ọ. These are scholarly reconstructions of sounds in the extinct Tangut language, not a settled modern reading.

The script was commissioned in 1036 for state-building in the Tangut-led Western Xia and to distinguish Tangut writing from that of the neighboring Song dynasty in China. Tangut books included Buddhist-text translations, Chinese classics, military works, and literature. A manuscript found at the Khara-Khoto ruins in Inner Mongolia probably dates to the 12th or early 13th century; that dates the manuscript, not this individual character.

Why does 𘔸 look different?

Its appearance depends on whether the font contains Tangut characters.

This is a text character drawn by a font. A font without Tangut coverage may show a blank or a box; the encoded character is still the same.

A recorded structural analysis places 𘧳 on the left of 𘔸 as one building component. That describes how the character is constructed; 𘧳 alone is not a substitute for it.