Tangut word for burning

𘝢 is a Tangut word for “to burn.” Tangut was the language of medieval Western Xia, written in its own script. Its scholarly Latin transcription, tshiwa, is not a pronunciation guide. Alone, the gloss cannot reveal a sender’s intent.

Text symbol

What 𘝢 means

The Tangut gloss is “to burn.” Tshiwa is a scholarly Latin transcription, not a pronunciation guide; surrounding Tangut text establishes its use.

The earliest surviving Tangut document is an official dispatch from 1072; this does not date 𘝢’s first appearance. Tangut writing served government, Buddhist translations, dictionaries and inscriptions. A Buddhist inscription from 1502 shows the script outlived the Tangut state.

Why did Tangut writing exist?

It served Western Xia government and religion. Tangut’s Chinese-influenced design also marked distance from China’s Song dynasty. 𘝡, glossed “flame,” shares a written building block with 𘝢.

Historical and technical; context matters.

Who writes 𘝢

Loading…

Questions people ask

Why does 𘝢 show as a box on some devices?

Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.