Khitan script

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Khitan
Type:
Languages:	Khitan language
Time period:
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Khitan script was the writing system of Khitan people. Afraid that the popularity of Chinese language and writing would blur their distinct identity, the Khitan people of the 10th century devised their own alphabet. There were two writing systems for the Khitan language, known as the large script and the small script; they were functionally independent. The former was derived from Chinese (Han characters), and the latter was reportedly created by the scholar Diela ca. 925 AD, and is said to have been inspired by the Uyghur alphabet.

Both of the scripts remain to be connected to the Khitan spoken language. Although there are several clues to its origins, which might point to different origins, the Khitan language is most probably Mongolic, and its agglutinizing nature is not particularly suited to purely monosyllabic logographs. The small script had logographs as well as characters which were completely phonemic. The Jurchen (ancestors of the Manchu people) derived their large script in part from Khitan.