Khitan small script
The Khitan small script is a logographic and phonographic writing system created around 924–925 CE by the Khitan scholar Yelü Diela for recording the Khitan language, a para-Mongolic tongue spoken by the nomadic Khitan people of northeastern Asia. Invented during the early years of the Liao dynasty (907–1125), it served as a more compact alternative to the contemporaneous Khitan large script, which was modeled on Chinese characters, and was reportedly inspired by the Uyghur script despite lacking obvious visual similarities. Comprising approximately 470 known characters—including logograms for words, syllabograms, and phonograms for syllables or consonants—the script was written in vertical columns from right to left, often employing stacked or dotted variants to distinguish phonetic nuances, such as gender markers or aspirated sounds. Primarily used for administrative, literary, and commemorative purposes, the Khitan small script appears in a limited corpus of around 30–40 surviving texts, mostly epitaphs on stone steles, but also on bronze mirrors, seals, and coins, with the longest inscription containing about 4,500 characters. Its adoption reflected the Liao rulers' efforts to promote Khitan cultural identity amid interactions with Chinese, Uyghur, and other neighboring traditions, enabling the transcription of native vocabulary alongside loanwords from Tibetan and Chinese. The script's usage peaked in the 11th and 12th centuries but declined after the Liao's conquest by the Jurchen Jin dynasty in 1125, persisting briefly in the Kara-Khitan Khanate (1124–1218) and under Jin rule until its official suppression in 1191; the last known practitioner was the scholar Yelü Chucai in the early 13th century. Decipherment efforts began in the 1920s but advanced significantly from the 1970s onward, with key breakthroughs in the 2000s through expanded corpora and comparative linguistics, revealing phonological features like uvular-velar distinctions and archaic initial consonants preserved in the script. Despite progress—yielding annotated glossaries and morphological analyses—many readings remain conjectural due to the script's mixed nature and sparse bilingual texts, limiting full reconstruction of the Khitan language. Ongoing research, including AI-driven analyses as of 2025, continues to refine interpretations. The script was encoded in the Unicode Standard version 13.0 (2020) in the block U+18B00–U+18CFF, facilitating digital scholarship and highlighting its role in understanding medieval Inner Asian history, linguistics, and cross-cultural exchanges.[1][2][3]Background
Khitan language and people
The Khitan people were a nomadic ethnic group of Para-Mongolic origin, originating from eastern Inner Mongolia and descending from the Xianbei confederation. They established the Liao dynasty in 907 CE under the leadership of Yelü Abaoji, who was proclaimed emperor in 916, ruling over vast territories in northern China, Mongolia, and surrounding regions until the dynasty's fall in 1125 CE. As proto-Mongolian tribes, the Khitans maintained a distinct cultural identity, blending nomadic traditions with influences from neighboring sedentary societies while preserving their tribal structures and customs.[4][5][6] The Khitan language, now extinct, belonged to the Para-Mongolic branch of languages, positioned as a sister rather than an ancestor to the Mongolic family, with shared features such as vowel harmony but notable distinctions like the lenition of certain consonants. It was primarily spoken by the Khitan elite and employed in administrative and official capacities within the Liao court, reflecting its role in governance and cultural expression. The language exhibited agglutinative morphology, subject-object-verb word order, and a system of vowel harmony evidenced by suffix alternations, such as perfective markers varying betweenOverview of Khitan scripts
The Khitan large script is a logographic writing system created in 920 CE under the direction of Liao Emperor Taizu (Yelü Abaoji), directly modeled on Chinese characters and featuring approximately 3,000 glyphs designed to represent words and morphemes.[8] This script was intended to facilitate the documentation of the Khitan language, a Para-Mongolic tongue spoken by the nomadic Khitan people who established the Liao dynasty in northeastern China.[9] In response to the need for a more practical writing system, the Khitan small script was developed around 924–925 CE by the scholar Yelü Diela as a compact alternative, comprising about 400 characters that blend logographic elements for whole words with phonographic components for syllables and sounds.[1] Unlike the large script's rigid, square forms derived from Chinese clerical script, the small script adopts a cursive style influenced by non-Chinese elements, such as possible Uyghur inspirations, enabling more fluid writing and fewer characters per text.[8] The two scripts served complementary functions within the Liao administration: the large script was primarily employed for formal inscriptions on monuments, stelae, and ceremonial artifacts due to its prestige and visual similarity to Chinese, while the small script's efficiency made it ideal for administrative records, literary compositions, and everyday documents.[9] This division allowed the Khitans to balance cultural emulation of Chinese traditions with practical needs for their agglutinative language, though both systems remained largely undeciphered until modern scholarship.[1]History
Development and creation
The Khitan small script was developed circa 924–925 CE during the early years of the Liao dynasty under Emperor Taizu (Yelü Abaoji), shortly after the introduction of the Khitan large script in 920 CE. It was invented by Yelü Diela, the emperor's younger brother and a scholar at the court, who drew inspiration from the Uyghur script and language after a Uyghur delegation demonstrated it to the Khitan court in 925 CE.[10] The primary motivation for its creation was the need for a more compact writing system suited to the Khitan language, which features a complex phonology and agglutinative structure requiring representation of numerous syllables. Unlike the large script, which emulated the logographic form of Chinese characters and proved cumbersome for efficient documentation, the small script adopted syllabic assembly principles to reduce bulk while adapting foreign influences for native use.[8]Usage and dissemination
The Khitan small script found its primary applications in administrative documents, Buddhist texts, poetry, and coinage throughout the Liao dynasty from the 10th to 12th centuries, serving as a key medium for recording official titles, religious content, literary expressions, and monetary inscriptions. Administrative uses included transcriptions of bureaucratic roles, such as "shangshu you puye" (Minister of the Right of the Department of State Affairs), which highlighted the script's role in governance and nobility records. In Buddhist contexts, it appeared in terms denoting eternity and spiritual concepts, integrating into religious documentation alongside Chinese translations. Poetic elements were evident in eulogies, like those for Empress Xuanyi featuring metaphors such as "jade hare" for the moon, demonstrating its literary versatility. Coinage inscriptions, such as those on Changshou coins bearing phrases like "long life," underscored its practical role in economic and symbolic state functions. Dissemination of the script occurred through structured education in imperial academies, notably the Hanlin Academy, where scholars like Yelü Gu, its director, promoted its use in official compositions blending Khitan and Chinese elements. It extended into Liao-Jin diplomacy, appearing in inscriptions like the Langjun stele, which referenced the "younger brother of the Great Jin Emperor" to facilitate communication between Khitan and Jurchen elites. Post-Liao conquest, Jurchen rulers under the Jin dynasty adopted the script for administrative purposes, with its use persisting among elites until its official abolition in 1191–1192, reflecting a cross-ethnic transmission of literacy practices.[11] The script reached its peak dissemination in the 11th century during the reign of Emperor Shengzong (r. 982–1031), when it became widespread for elite documentation, evidenced by approximately 40 surviving epitaphs from Liao tombs at sites like Qingling, many incorporating multi-script steles combining Khitan small script with large script and Chinese. This period marked heightened production of inscriptions, such as the Epitaph of Xiao Xingyan (1088), illustrating its integration into monumental and commemorative works. Socially, the script functioned as an elite literacy tool primarily among Khitan nobility for preserving cultural identity and official narratives, in contrast to Chinese script, which was mandated for Han subjects in administrative and legal matters, thereby reinforcing ethnic and hierarchical distinctions within Liao society.Decline and legacy
The Khitan small script experienced a rapid decline following the collapse of the Liao dynasty in 1125 CE, when the Jurchen Jin dynasty conquered the Khitan territories and promoted their own writing systems alongside Chinese characters for administrative and cultural dominance.[12] This political shift marginalized the Khitan scripts, as the new rulers prioritized integration with Han Chinese traditions and developed the Jurchen large script, modeled after the Khitan large script, to assert their identity.[13] Despite the fall of the Liao, the Khitan small script persisted in limited use during the early Jin dynasty in the 12th century, appearing in some inscriptions and documents among Khitan elites who retained cultural practices.[1] Official discontinuation occurred in 1191 CE under Emperor Zhangzong of Jin, after which the script faded into obscurity by the 13th century amid the Mongol conquest of the Jin in 1234 CE, as the Mongols favored Uyghur-derived scripts and further assimilated Khitan populations.[3] The legacy of the Khitan small script is evident in its direct influence on the Jurchen small script, which adopted similar phonetic and syllabic principles for rendering non-Chinese elements, facilitating the Jurchens' adaptation of Khitan linguistic traditions.[13] This connection underscores the script's role in the broader evolution of Northeast Asian writing systems during the medieval period. Interest in reviving the Khitan small script emerged in the 20th century, driven by nationalist movements in China and Mongolia that sought to reclaim pre-Mongol ethnic histories and cultural heritage.[14] Rediscovery began with 19th-century finds of inscriptions in Mongolia by Russian explorers, which sparked scholarly attention and culminated in major 20th-century excavations that fueled ongoing research into Khitan identity.[15]Script characteristics
Character composition and forms
The Khitan small script consists of approximately 470 known characters, with 471 graphic forms encoded in Unicode (added in version 13.0), many of which exhibit variants due to the script's cursive and assembled nature.[1] These characters are primarily logograms and phonograms that combine into syllabic blocks, allowing for compact representation of words through phonetic and semantic elements.[1] Character composition draws from simplified forms of Chinese radicals, though without direct semantic or phonetic correspondence to Han ideographs, resulting in unique glyphs that adapt familiar stroke patterns for Khitan use.[16] Phonetic compounds form a key structural element, where individual components representing sounds or syllables are assembled into larger units, often within rectangular blocks of 2 to 8 characters arranged left-to-right and top-to-bottom.[1] Unlike the more pictorial Khitan large script, the small script emphasizes streamlined assembly for efficiency.[1] The script employs vertical writing in columns read from right to left, mirroring traditional Chinese conventions, with characters typically comprising 5 to 10 strokes on average to balance legibility and cursive flow. Ligatures appear occasionally for common syllable combinations, enhancing the cursive style, while variants such as dotted forms (e.g., for grammatical distinctions like gender in numerals) and alloglyphs arise from scribal practices.[16] Regional variations across Liao territories are evident in inscriptional styles, but imperial standardization prevailed in official artifacts, promoting consistent forms despite local adaptations.[1]Phonetic and semantic principles
The Khitan small script operates as a mixed writing system, combining logographic elements for representing content words with syllabic-phonetic components primarily for verbs, particles, and grammatical affixes. Approximately 40% of its known characters function as phonetic signs, while 10% serve logographic roles, with the remainder either unidentified, variants, or multifunctional (per Kane 2009).[17] This blend allows for both semantic indication and sound-based transcription, drawing partial influence from Chinese logographic traditions but adapted to the Khitan language's needs.[17] Logographic characters predominantly denote nouns in an ideographic manner, capturing core meanings such as "heaven," "eternal," or "north," while numbers are represented by dedicated logograms that distinguish gender through dotted (masculine) or undotted (feminine or neutral) variants. Verbs are typically expressed through logographic roots augmented by phonetic affixes, and the rebus principle is employed to extend meanings via homophones, where a single character might convey different but phonetically similar words depending on context. For instance, the character for "nine" can also function phonetically in compound forms.[18][17] The script's phonology is covered through syllabic graphemes that represent 7–9 vowels and over 20 consonants, often via compounds rather than a dedicated alphabet, resulting in no complete phonetic inventory. Vowels appear in open syllables (long, as in V or CV forms like ā or qā) or closed syllables (generally short, except for specific long ē plus consonant series like ēr), with distinctions marked orthographically to reflect the language's vowel length contrasts. Consonants and vowels combine into blocks, such as CV (consonant-vowel) or VC (vowel-consonant) sequences, enabling representation of the Khitan sound system without full alphabetic independence.[18][19][20] Grammar is encoded through separate characters for suffixes, mirroring the agglutinative structure of Khitan by attaching morphemes for cases (e.g., genitive -en, dative -de), tense (past -ar), gender (masculine -er, feminine -en), and plurality (-d). These phonetic affixes follow logographic roots, as in "ci.er" for "wrote" (verb root plus past instrumental suffix), allowing explicit marking of syntactic relationships in a subject-verb-object word order. Particles and evidential markers, like quotative k.ii.uji, are similarly rendered as distinct syllabic units.[17][18]Corpus and artifacts
Major inscriptions and texts
The major inscriptions in the Khitan small script consist primarily of funerary epitaphs and memorial tablets from the tombs of Khitan nobility and royalty, with approximately 30–40 known examples dating from 1053 to 1171 CE.[1] These texts, totaling approximately 100,000 characters across the corpus, include royal memorials, historical records, and occasional poetic elements, though the longest complete inscription comprises about 4,500 characters in a single piece.[1] Most originate from archaeological sites in Inner Mongolia and Liaoning Province in northern China, where they were buried with the deceased. Many stones are damaged due to weathering and burial conditions, but ink rubbings and photographs have preserved critical details for study.[1] Key artifacts highlight the script's use in elite commemorative contexts. The following table summarizes prominent examples:| Artifact | Date | Location | Content Type | Length/Notes | Condition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Epitaph for Yelü Dilie (耶律迪烈) | 1092 CE | Inner Mongolia | Funerary memorial for a Khitan prince | 1,740 characters; includes biographical details | Partially damaged; rubbings available |
| Epitaph for Emperor Daozong (耶律洪基) | 1101 CE | Bairin Right Banner, Inner Mongolia | Imperial tomb inscription | approximately 1,170 characters; royal edict-like elements | Well-preserved core text |
| Tomb Inscription of Yelü Renxian (耶律仁先) | 1072 CE | Beipiao, Liaoning Province | Memorial stele | 4,500 characters; longest known text, with poetic passages | Good preservation |
| Tomb Inscription of Yelü Dabuye (耶律達不野) | 1115 CE | Ongniud Banner, Inner Mongolia | Aristocratic epitaph | 699 characters; noted for aesthetic calligraphy | Excellent condition, considered the most beautiful |
| Record of the Journey of the Younger Brother of the Emperor of the Great Jin Dynasty | 1134 CE | Northern China (exact site unknown) | Historical travel record | ~500 characters; administrative narrative | Fragmentary but legible |