View source for Tangut script

{{Multiple issues|{{Expand Chinese|date=August 2020|topic=cult}}
{{more footnotes|date=January 2022}}}}
{{Short description|Chinese-based script for Tangut language}}
{{Infobox Writing system
|name        = Tangut
|type        = Logographic
|time        = 1036–1502
|languages   = [[Tangut language]]
|fam1        = [[Constructed script]] inspired by [[Chinese characters]]
|creator     = [[Yeli Renrong]]
|sample      = The Art of War-Tangut script.jpg
|caption     = ''[[The Art of War]]'' written in Tangut
|iso15924    = Tang
|direction comment=
|unicode = {{ublist |class=nowrap |[https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U17000.pdf U+17000–U+187FF] {{smaller|Tangut}} |[https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U18D00.pdf U+18D00–U+18D7F] {{smaller|Tangut Supplement}} |[https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U18800.pdf U+18800–U+18AFF] {{smaller|Tangut Components}} |[https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U16FE0.pdf U+16FE0–U+16FFF] {{smaller|Ideographic Symbols &amp; Punct.}}}}
|note        = none
}}
{{Contains special characters|Tangut}}
The '''Tangut script''' ([[Tangut language|Tangut]]: {{Tangut|𗼇𘝞}}; {{zh|c=西夏文 |p=Xī Xià Wén |l=Western Xia script}}) is a [[logographic]] writing system, formerly used for writing the extinct [[Tangut language]] of the [[Western Xia]] dynasty. According to the latest count, 5863 Tangut characters are known, excluding variants.<ref>{{cite web |language=zh-hans |url=http://www.nxnews.net/923/2004-12-9/22@61505.htm |script-title=zh:《西夏文字共有５８６３个正字》 |publisher=Ningxia News |access-date=2006-11-21 |archive-date=2007-03-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070302100239/http://www.nxnews.net/923/2004-12-9/22%4061505.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> The Tangut characters are similar in appearance to [[Chinese characters]],<ref name="Mote2003">{{cite book|author=Frederick W. Mote|title=Imperial China 900–1800|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SQWW7QgUH4gC&pg=PA395|year=2003|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-01212-7|pages=395–}}</ref> with the same type of [[stroke (CJK character)|strokes]], but the methods of forming characters in the Tangut writing system are significantly different from [[Chinese character classification|those of forming Chinese characters]]. As in [[Chinese calligraphy]], regular, [[Semi-cursive script|running]], [[Cursive script (East Asia)|cursive]] and [[seal script]]s were used in Tangut writing.

==History==
According to the ''[[History of Song (Yuan dynasty)|History of Song]]'' (1346), the script was designed by the high-ranking official [[Yeli Renrong]] in 1036.<ref>{{cite web |language=zh-hans |url=http://www.wenhuacn.com/lishi/shiji/20songshi/485.htm  |script-title=zh:《宋史‧卷四百八十五‧列传第二百四十四‧外国一‧夏国上》}}</ref><ref name="YongPeng2008">{{cite book|author1=Heming Yong|author2=Jing Peng|title=Chinese Lexicography : A History from 1046 BC to AD 1911|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NYFBtTUZFxEC&q=tangut+qinghai&pg=PA377|date=14 August 2008|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-156167-2|pages=377–}}</ref> The script was invented in a short period of time, and was put into use quickly. Government schools were founded to teach the script. Official documents were written in the script (with diplomatic ones written bilingually). A great number of [[Buddhist scripture]]s were translated from Tibetan and Chinese, and [[Woodblock printing|block printed]] in the script.<ref>{{cite web |language=zh-hans |author=Xu Zhuang (徐庄 |url=http://www.pubhistory.com/img/text/3/603.htm |script-title=zh:《略谈西夏雕版印刷在中国出版史中的地位》 |publisher=出版学术网 |access-date=2007-03-05 |archive-date=2007-03-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070316003854/http://www.pubhistory.com/img/text/3/603.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Although the dynasty collapsed in 1227, the script continued to be used for another few centuries. The last known example of the script occurs on a pair of [[Tangut dharani pillars]] found at [[Baoding]] in present-day [[Hebei]] province, which were erected in 1502.<ref>{{cite journal | title=Xixia Language Studies and the Lotus Sutra (II) | last=Nishida | first = Tatsuo | others=translated by Noriyoshi Mizujulle, Anthony George and Hamaki Kotsuki | journal=The Journal of Oriental Studies | volume=20 | year = 2010 | pages=222–251 | url=http://www.iop.or.jp/Documents/1020/nishida.pdf }}</ref>

==Structure==

{{quotation|[Tangut] is remarkable for being written in one of the most inconvenient of all scripts, a collection of nearly 5,800 characters of the same kind as Chinese characters but rather more complicated; very few are made up of as few as four strokes and most are made up of a good many more, in some cases nearly twenty...  There are few recognizable indications of sound and meaning in the constituent parts of a character, and in some cases characters which differ from one another only in minor details of shape or by one or two strokes have completely different sounds and meanings.<ref>{{Cite journal | last=Clauson | first= Gerard | author-link=Gerard Clauson | title=The Future of Tangut (Hsi Hsia) Studies | journal=Asia Major | series = (New Series) | volume=11 | issue=1 | year=1964 | pages=54–77 | url=http://www2.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/file/1701KXmhzJq.pdf }}</ref>|[[Gerard Clauson]]|title=|source=}}
Tangut characters can be divided into two classes: simple and composite.  The latter are much more numerous.  The simple characters can be either semantic or phonetic. None of the Tangut characters are pictographic, while the Chinese characters were at the time of their creation; this is one of the major differences between Tangut and Chinese characters. [[File:Tangut 1.png|thumb|upright|The Tangut character for "man", a relatively simple character]][[File:Bushell's 1896 decipherment of Tangut characters.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Stephen Wootton Bushell]]'s decipherment of 37 Tangut characters]]

[[File:Tangut script 2.png|left|thumb|upright|The Tangut character "mud" is made with part of the character "water" (far left) and the whole of the character "soil"]]
Most composite characters comprise two components. A few comprise three or four. A component can be a simple character, or part of a composite character. The composite characters include semantic-semantic ones and semantic-phonetic ones. A few special composite characters were made for [[transliteration|transliterating]] Chinese and [[Sanskrit]].
[[File:Tangut script 3.png|thumb|upright|The Tangut characters for "toe" (left) and "finger" (right), both characters having the same components]]
There are a number of pairs of special composite characters worth noting. The members of such a pair have the same components, only the location of the components in them is different (e.g. AB vs. BA, ABC vs. ACB). The members of such a pair have very similar meanings.

''The Sea of Characters'' (Tangut: {{tangut|𘝞𗗚}}; {{Lang-zh|c=文海|s=|t=|p=wén hǎi}}), a 12th century monolingual Tangut rhyming dictionary, analyzes what other characters each character is derived from. Its analyses illustrate another difference between Tangut and Chinese characters. In Chinese, typically, each semantic component has its own meaning, and each phonetic component its own sound; they contribute this meaning or sound to any complex character they appear in. By contrast, in the ''Sea of Characters'' analysis of Tangut, a component contributes the meaning or sound of some other character that contains it, potentially a different one in every appearance. For example, the component {{Tangut|𘤊}} can have the meaning of "bird" ({{Tangut|𗿼}} *dźjwow, of which it is the left side), as in {{Tangut|𗿝}} *dze "wild goose" '''=''' {{Tangut|𗿼}} *dźjwow "bird" '''+''' {{Tangut|𗨜}} *dze "longevity". But the same component is also used to convey meanings of bone, smoke, food, and time, among others.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=West|first=Andrew|date=May 21, 2009|title=Untangling the Web of Characters|url=https://www.babelstone.co.uk/Blog/2010/04/untangling-web-of-characters.html|access-date=2020-08-13|website=www.babelstone.co.uk}}</ref>

Some components take different shape depending on what part of the character they appear in (e.g., left side, right side, middle, bottom).<ref name=":0" />

== Reconstruction ==
[[File:Pearl in Palm page 14b.png|thumb|upright=0.9|Blockprinted page from the ''Pearl in the Palm'' found at the Northern [[Mogao Caves]]]]
{{Main|Tangutology|Tangut language}}
{{Empty section|date=March 2020}}

==Unicode==
{{Main|Tangut (Unicode block)|Tangut Components|Tangut Supplement|l2=Tangut Components (Unicode block)|l3=Tangut Supplement (Unicode block)}}
6,125 characters of the Tangut script were included in Unicode version 9.0 in June 2016 in the [[Tangut (Unicode block)|Tangut block]].  755 Radicals and components used in the modern study of Tangut were added to the [[Tangut Components]] block.  An iteration mark, {{unichar|16FE0|TANGUT ITERATION MARK}}, was included in the [[Ideographic Symbols and Punctuation]] block.<ref>{{cite web |title=Unicode 9.0.0 |url=https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode9.0.0/ |website=The Unicode Standard |access-date=30 September 2021}}</ref> Five additional characters were added in June 2018 with the release of Unicode version 11.0. Six additional characters were added in March 2019 with the release of Unicode version 12.0. A further nine Tangut ideographs were added to the [[Tangut Supplement]] block and 13 Tangut components were added to the Tangut Components block in March 2020 with the release of Unicode version 13.0. The Tangut Supplement block size was changed in Unicode version 14.0 to correct the erroneous block end point (version 13: {{mono|18D8F}} → version 14.0: {{mono|18D7F}}).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode14.0.0/erratafixed.html|title=Errata fixed in version 14.0.0|date=|access-date=1 October 2021}}</ref>
{{clearleft}}

== See also ==
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
* [[Tangutology]]
* [[Tangut numerals]]
* [[List of Tangutologists]]
* [[List of Tangut books]]
* [[Chinese family of scripts]]
* [[Tangut dharani pillars]]
}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Sources ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Grinstead |first=Eric |author-link=Eric Grinstead |year=1972 |title=Analysis of the Tangut Script |series=Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies Monograph Series |number=10 |location=Lund |publisher=[[Studentlitteratur]]}}
* {{cite book |last=Kychanov |first=Evgenij Ivanovich Kychanov |author-link=Evgenij Ivanovich Kychanov |year=1996 |contribution=Tangut |editor1-last=Daniels |editor1-first=Peter T. |editor2-last=Bright |editor2-first=William |title=The World's Writing Systems |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |ISBN=0-19-507993-0 |pages=228–9}}
* {{cite book |last=Tatsuo |first=Nishida 西田龍雄 |author-link=Nishida Tatsuo |year=1994 |title=Seika moji: sono kaidoku no purosesu |script-title=ja:西夏文字: その解讀のプロセス |trans-title=Xixia script: the process of its decipherment |location=Tokyo |publisher=Kinokuniya shoten |ISBN=4-314-00632-3 |lang=ja}}
* {{cite book |last=Shi |first=Jinbo 史金波 |author-link=Shi Jinbo |year=1981 |contribution=Lüelun Xixia wenzi de gouzao |script-contribution=zh:略论西夏文字的构造 |trans-contribution=A sketch of the structure of the Tangut script |title=Minzu yuwen lunji |script-title=zh:民族语文论集 |trans-title=A collection of essays concerning the languages of the ethnic minorities |location=Beijing |publisher=Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe |pages=192–226 |lang=zh}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{commons category}}
*[http://www.omniglot.com/writing/tangut.htm Tangut script] at Omniglot
*[http://www.babelstone.co.uk/Tangut/ Tangut script], by [[Andrew West (linguist)|Andrew West]]
*{{in lang|ja}} [http://www.mojikyo.org/html/index.html Sample Tangut characters] at Mojikyo
*{{in lang|ja}} {{lang|ja|大西 磨希子・北本 朝展，[http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/rarebook/08/ 『文字が語りかける民族意識：カラホトと西夏文字』]，ディジタル・シルクロード}}
*{{cite web|url=http://2010.nxnews.net/1168/2004-12-14/13@62280.htm|script-title=zh:《西夏文字是有规律的文字吗？》|author=史金波|publisher=宁夏新闻网|access-date=2014-09-09|language=zh|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140910200053/http://2010.nxnews.net/1168/2004-12-14/13%4062280.htm|archive-date=2014-09-10}}
*[http://www.ccamc.co/tangut_index.php Tangut index]

{{list of writing systems}}

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[[Category:Tangut script| ]]
[[Category:Tanguts]]
[[Category:Obsolete writing systems]]
[[Category:1036 establishments]]
[[Category:11th-century introductions]]
[[Category:Writing systems introduced in the 2nd millennium]]
[[Category:Writing systems derived from Chinese characters]]
[[Category:1036 in Asia]]