Tangut Ideograph 18554

𘕔 is Tangut; lə¹ is a reconstructed reading, not a translation.

Tangut, also called Xixia, is the script created for the Tangut language. Its compact, square characters can look like Chinese writing, but they belong to a separate script with its own character set.

A Tangut–Chinese dictionary—a list of Tangut entries with Chinese explanations—published in 2008 reconstructs the reading as lə¹. The notation represents an l sound followed by the neutral vowel ə (schwa), with tone 1. It describes reconstructed sound, not an English definition.

Why was Tangut writing created?

It let the Western Xia state write the Tangut language.

Tangut was spoken in the area of present-day northwestern China. The script was devised about 1036 under Western Xia's first emperor. People used it for government, private writing, and religious texts, including books, Buddhist sutras, inscriptions, and manuscripts.

After Mongol forces conquered Western Xia, Tangut writing continued during the Yuan and Ming dynasties; it had become obsolete by the end of the Ming dynasty. Scholars rediscovered Tangut texts in the late 19th century, and N. A. Nevsky's work helped decipher the script in the early 20th century.