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HandWiki. Khitan Scripts. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/37718 (accessed on 30 September 2026).
HandWiki. Khitan Scripts. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/37718. Accessed September 30, 2026.
HandWiki. "Khitan Scripts" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/37718 (accessed September 30, 2026).
HandWiki. (2022, December 02). Khitan Scripts. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/37718
HandWiki. "Khitan Scripts." Encyclopedia. Web. 02 December, 2022.
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The Khitan scripts were the writing systems for the now-extinct Para-Mongolic Khitan language used in the 10th-12th century by the Khitan people who had established the Liao dynasty in Northeast China. There were two scripts, the large script (Chinese: 契丹大字; pinyin: qìdān dàzì) and the small script (Chinese: 契丹小字; pinyin: qìdān xiǎozì). These were functionally independent and appear to have been used simultaneously. The Khitan scripts continued to be in use to some extent by the Jurchen people for several decades after the fall of the Liao dynasty until the Jurchens fully switched to a script of their own. Examples of the scripts appeared most often on epitaphs and monuments, although other fragments sometimes surface. Many scholars recognize that the Khitan scripts have not been fully deciphered and that more research and discoveries would be necessary for a proficient understanding of them. The Khitan scripts are part of the Chinese family of scripts. Knowledge of the Khitan language, which was written by the Khitan script, is quite limited as well. Although there are several clues to its origins, which might point in different directions, the Khitan language shares an ancestor with the Mongolian languages but is not one.
knowledge
khitan
mongolian
References
- Jacques Gernet (1996). A history of Chinese civilization. Cambridge University Press. p. 353. ISBN 0-521-49781-7. https://books.google.com/books?id=jqb7L-pKCV8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=A+history+of+Chinese+civilization&hl=en&src=bmrr&ei=boPQTc2wCs2RgQf618y5DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CEIQ6AEwAA#v=snippet&q=script%20khitan%20close%20%20%20write&f=false. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
- Jacques Gernet (1996). A history of Chinese civilization. Cambridge University Press. p. 34. ISBN 0-521-49781-7. https://books.google.com/books?id=jqb7L-pKCV8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=A+history+of+Chinese+civilization&hl=en&src=bmrr&ei=boPQTc2wCs2RgQf618y5DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CEIQ6AEwAA#v=snippet&q=khitan%20inspired&f=false. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
- Frederick W. Mote (2003). Imperial China 900–1800. Harvard University Press. pp. 395–. ISBN 978-0-674-01212-7. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=SQWW7QgUH4gC&oi=fnd&pg=PA395#v=onepage&q&f=false.
- Kane (1989), p. 12
- Kane (1989), p. 11–13
- Kane (1989), pp. 6–7
- Kane (1989), pp. 6, 12
- Daniels, Peter T.; Bright, William (1996), The World’s Writing Systems, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 230–234
- Jacques Gernet (1996). A history of Chinese civilization. Cambridge University Press. p. 354. ISBN 0-521-49781-7. https://books.google.com/books?id=jqb7L-pKCV8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=A+history+of+Chinese+civilization&hl=en&src=bmrr&ei=boPQTc2wCs2RgQf618y5DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CEIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=based%20on%20uighur%20script&f=false. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
- Kara, György (1987), "On the Khitan Writing Systems", Mongolian Studies, 10: 19–23
- Kane (1989), p. 15.
- Kane (1989), p. 17
- Kane (1989), p. 16
- According to Kane (1989) (p. 13), the most complete publication on the Khitan small script as of that time was the book by Činggeltei et al. (1985). It contained the complete corpus of inscriptions in that script known to date, summary of research done on the subject in China and elsewhere, and a complete bibliography.
- Kane (1989), pp. 4–5, 13–20
- Kiyose, Gisaburo N. (1985), "The Significance of the New Kitan and Jurchen Materials", Papers in East Asian Languages: 75–87
- Jacques Gernet (1996). A history of Chinese civilization. Cambridge University Press. p. 359. ISBN 0-521-49781-7. https://books.google.com/books?id=jqb7L-pKCV8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=A+history+of+Chinese+civilization&hl=en&src=bmrr&ei=boPQTc2wCs2RgQf618y5DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CEIQ6AEwAA#v=snippet&q=khitan%20script%20big%20characters&f=false. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
- Kane 2009, p. 4
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