Tangut is full of bird radicals even though half the time nobody has the slightest idea why.
BabelStone Blog : Untangling the Web of Characters
www.babelstone.co.uk
October 20, 2026 at 7:55 PM
Tangut is full of bird radicals even though half the time nobody has the slightest idea why.
TOC: Language and Linguistics Vol. 27, No. 4 (2026)
TOC: Language and Linguistics Vol. 27, No. 4 (2026)
2026. iii, 171 pp.
Table of Contents
Articles
Exploring tonal contrasts in Dharamshala Tibetan using mathematical modeling, statistical modeling, and machine learning algorithms
Sharmistha Sarkar, Somdev Kar & Amalesh Gope | pp. 645–684
On the absence of exceptionally optional negative concord in Turkish
Emrah Görgülü | pp. 685–709
The sigmatic perfect 𗭪 sji2 in Tangut and its grammaticalization
Yue Ji | pp. 710–734
Towards a new dialectology of Situ Gyalrong
Shuya Zhang &
dlvr.it
October 15, 2026 at 5:11 PM
TOC: Language and Linguistics Vol. 27, No. 4 (2026)
Bottle with "Garlic-Head" Mouth https://collections.artsmia.org/art/45393/
October 14, 2026 at 7:56 AM
Bottle with "Garlic-Head" Mouth https://collections.artsmia.org/art/45393/
It is fascinating how satellite cultures all grappled with Chinese characters in novel ways:
* Japanese hiragana : cursive turned into syllabary
* Korean hangeul : new alphabet using components from Chinese.
* Vietnamese Chũ-Nôm : phonetic characters
* Tangut : just make up fake Chinese characters.
* Japanese hiragana : cursive turned into syllabary
* Korean hangeul : new alphabet using components from Chinese.
* Vietnamese Chũ-Nôm : phonetic characters
* Tangut : just make up fake Chinese characters.
October 10, 2026 at 12:37 AM
It is fascinating how satellite cultures all grappled with Chinese characters in novel ways:
* Japanese hiragana : cursive turned into syllabary
* Korean hangeul : new alphabet using components from Chinese.
* Vietnamese Chũ-Nôm : phonetic characters
* Tangut : just make up fake Chinese characters.
* Japanese hiragana : cursive turned into syllabary
* Korean hangeul : new alphabet using components from Chinese.
* Vietnamese Chũ-Nôm : phonetic characters
* Tangut : just make up fake Chinese characters.
Should note that this was in the context of Cikoski saying, of Chinese, that it is the worst writing system in the world except one, and that one is derived from it.
Feels like letting Tangut off too easy, IMO, but definitely true if we’re sticking to somehow still-extant writing systems
Feels like letting Tangut off too easy, IMO, but definitely true if we’re sticking to somehow still-extant writing systems
September 30, 2026 at 2:31 AM
Should note that this was in the context of Cikoski saying, of Chinese, that it is the worst writing system in the world except one, and that one is derived from it.
Feels like letting Tangut off too easy, IMO, but definitely true if we’re sticking to somehow still-extant writing systems
Feels like letting Tangut off too easy, IMO, but definitely true if we’re sticking to somehow still-extant writing systems
Unicode 18.0 and Emoji 18.0 have now been approved, for a total of 13,007 new characters, of which 9 are brand-new emoji codepoints.
Small seal Chinese script and the Tangut script are also included in the expansion.
This brings the total number of characters encoded within Unicode to 172,808.
Small seal Chinese script and the Tangut script are also included in the expansion.
This brings the total number of characters encoded within Unicode to 172,808.
What's New In Unicode 18.0
Today the latest list of new emoji recommendations has been approved by the Unicode Consortium, confirming new additions such as the Cracking Face, the Pickle, the Meteor, the Lighthouse, and the Eras...
blog.emojipedia.org
September 17, 2026 at 11:55 PM
Unicode 18.0 and Emoji 18.0 have now been approved, for a total of 13,007 new characters, of which 9 are brand-new emoji codepoints.
Small seal Chinese script and the Tangut script are also included in the expansion.
This brings the total number of characters encoded within Unicode to 172,808.
Small seal Chinese script and the Tangut script are also included in the expansion.
This brings the total number of characters encoded within Unicode to 172,808.
2/2 More than forty years later, Donald Mennie chose almost the same view. The empire had fallen, but muleteers and donkeys still followed this old branch of the Silk Roads. Its six inscriptions included Tangut language (not from the Tang dynasty) but the language of the vanished Western Xia dynasty
September 9, 2026 at 10:06 AM
2/2 More than forty years later, Donald Mennie chose almost the same view. The empire had fallen, but muleteers and donkeys still followed this old branch of the Silk Roads. Its six inscriptions included Tangut language (not from the Tang dynasty) but the language of the vanished Western Xia dynasty
The second is easy, definitely classical Tibetan (I don't consider my studies of Tangut to be that serious and Manchu and the Jingpo variety of Kachin is also surprisingly doable or at least the book I use is easy enough, because it was meant to be a quick guide to basic communication
August 28, 2026 at 3:21 PM
The second is easy, definitely classical Tibetan (I don't consider my studies of Tangut to be that serious and Manchu and the Jingpo variety of Kachin is also surprisingly doable or at least the book I use is easy enough, because it was meant to be a quick guide to basic communication
Yel Dashi moved decisively, opening contacts with Tatar steppe tribes and the Tangut court of Western Xia, weaving a diplomatic net to pin the Jin in place.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FM3C1NFS
#LiaoDynasty
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FM3C1NFS
#LiaoDynasty
August 25, 2026 at 3:43 PM
Yel Dashi moved decisively, opening contacts with Tatar steppe tribes and the Tangut court of Western Xia, weaving a diplomatic net to pin the Jin in place.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FM3C1NFS
#LiaoDynasty
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FM3C1NFS
#LiaoDynasty
Yel Dashi moved decisively, opening contacts with Tatar steppe tribes and the Tangut court of Western Xia, weaving a diplomatic net to pin the Jin in place, his power becoming formidable as he cultivated good…
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FM3C1NFS
#LiaoDynasty
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FM3C1NFS
#LiaoDynasty
August 24, 2026 at 1:32 PM
Yel Dashi moved decisively, opening contacts with Tatar steppe tribes and the Tangut court of Western Xia, weaving a diplomatic net to pin the Jin in place, his power becoming formidable as he cultivated good…
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FM3C1NFS
#LiaoDynasty
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FM3C1NFS
#LiaoDynasty
You sort of need a separate category for logographic systems, but there I think the winner is clear: Tangut script. “Yes I’ve always thought the problem with Chinese characters is that there are too few strokes.“ – statements of the utterly deranged
August 21, 2026 at 3:32 PM
You sort of need a separate category for logographic systems, but there I think the winner is clear: Tangut script. “Yes I’ve always thought the problem with Chinese characters is that there are too few strokes.“ – statements of the utterly deranged
Genghis Khan led his forces out from Xiliang, driving forward with relentless momentum toward key Tangut positions, as the Xia army, commanded by General Wei, prepared to meet the Mongol onslaught head-on in a…
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLF4FCNT
#WesternXiaDynasty
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLF4FCNT
#WesternXiaDynasty
August 20, 2026 at 9:39 PM
Genghis Khan led his forces out from Xiliang, driving forward with relentless momentum toward key Tangut positions, as the Xia army, commanded by General Wei, prepared to meet the Mongol onslaught head-on in a…
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLF4FCNT
#WesternXiaDynasty
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLF4FCNT
#WesternXiaDynasty
Yu Que's descendants had assimilated into Han culture, but some elderly people retained memories of their Tangut ancestry, a legacy preserved in stone Buddhist sutra-beds unearthed in Hanzhuang village, carved…
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLF4FCNT
#WesternXiaDynasty
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLF4FCNT
#WesternXiaDynasty
August 20, 2026 at 7:42 PM
Yu Que's descendants had assimilated into Han culture, but some elderly people retained memories of their Tangut ancestry, a legacy preserved in stone Buddhist sutra-beds unearthed in Hanzhuang village, carved…
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLF4FCNT
#WesternXiaDynasty
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLF4FCNT
#WesternXiaDynasty
Lifan Deng, Yongwei Zhang, Sen Sun, Bojun Sun, Jingsong Yu
Tangut Word Segmentation under Extreme Resource Scarcity: Integrating Traditional Lexicons and Unlabeled Text
https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.18437
Tangut Word Segmentation under Extreme Resource Scarcity: Integrating Traditional Lexicons and Unlabeled Text
https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.18437
August 20, 2026 at 2:05 PM
Lifan Deng, Yongwei Zhang, Sen Sun, Bojun Sun, Jingsong Yu
Tangut Word Segmentation under Extreme Resource Scarcity: Integrating Traditional Lexicons and Unlabeled Text
https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.18437
Tangut Word Segmentation under Extreme Resource Scarcity: Integrating Traditional Lexicons and Unlabeled Text
https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.18437
Tangut forces clashed with Jurchen and Mongol armies at Heishui City, a pivotal crossroads where ancient routes converged, as the once-mighty Western Xia teetered on the brink of collapse.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLF4FCNT
#WesternXiaDynasty
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLF4FCNT
#WesternXiaDynasty
August 20, 2026 at 12:22 PM
Tangut forces clashed with Jurchen and Mongol armies at Heishui City, a pivotal crossroads where ancient routes converged, as the once-mighty Western Xia teetered on the brink of collapse.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLF4FCNT
#WesternXiaDynasty
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLF4FCNT
#WesternXiaDynasty
Lifan Deng, Yongwei Zhang, Sen Sun, Bojun Sun, Jingsong Yu: Tangut Word Segmentation under Extreme Resource Scarcity: Integrating Traditional Lexicons and Unlabeled Text https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.18437 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2608.18437 https://arxiv.org/html/2608.18437
August 20, 2026 at 6:40 AM
Lifan Deng, Yongwei Zhang, Sen Sun, Bojun Sun, Jingsong Yu: Tangut Word Segmentation under Extreme Resource Scarcity: Integrating Traditional Lexicons and Unlabeled Text https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.18437 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2608.18437 https://arxiv.org/html/2608.18437
Liu Changzuo led his men northward, surging forward with irresistible momentum until they stood at the walls of Lingzhou, a city taken from the Song by the Tangut rulers of Western Xia.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLF4FCNT
#WesternXiaDynasty
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLF4FCNT
#WesternXiaDynasty
August 19, 2026 at 2:47 PM
Liu Changzuo led his men northward, surging forward with irresistible momentum until they stood at the walls of Lingzhou, a city taken from the Song by the Tangut rulers of Western Xia.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLF4FCNT
#WesternXiaDynasty
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLF4FCNT
#WesternXiaDynasty
Li Yuanhao shifted his forces, striking northwest at Han Qi's sector, where Ren Fu led 7,000 Song troops into the field, routing the Tangut columns and inflicting a crushing defeat.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLF4FCNT
#WesternXiaDynasty
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLF4FCNT
#WesternXiaDynasty
August 19, 2026 at 4:49 AM
Li Yuanhao shifted his forces, striking northwest at Han Qi's sector, where Ren Fu led 7,000 Song troops into the field, routing the Tangut columns and inflicting a crushing defeat.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLF4FCNT
#WesternXiaDynasty
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLF4FCNT
#WesternXiaDynasty
Li Deming fell gravely ill and died at fifty-one, his grand ambition to found an independent Tangut state unfulfilled, as he lay at his palace in the heart of his realm, surrounded by the symbols of his…
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLF4FCNT
#WesternXiaDynasty
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLF4FCNT
#WesternXiaDynasty
August 18, 2026 at 5:05 PM
Li Deming fell gravely ill and died at fifty-one, his grand ambition to found an independent Tangut state unfulfilled, as he lay at his palace in the heart of his realm, surrounded by the symbols of his…
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLF4FCNT
#WesternXiaDynasty
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLF4FCNT
#WesternXiaDynasty
Nooo, bluesky doesn't support tangut unicode:(
August 16, 2026 at 2:28 PM
Nooo, bluesky doesn't support tangut unicode:(
Ok what if i do my masters in tangut studies? 𗦸𘘮𗫦𘚜?
August 16, 2026 at 2:09 PM
Ok what if i do my masters in tangut studies? 𗦸𘘮𗫦𘚜?
@chiaweilin.bsky.social can chat with you about Tangut!
August 16, 2026 at 2:45 PM
@chiaweilin.bsky.social can chat with you about Tangut!
I need to look into Tangut grammar tbh, This is just what the Li Fanwen dictionary tells me is "What : I : Study : Tangut"
August 16, 2026 at 2:10 PM
I need to look into Tangut grammar tbh, This is just what the Li Fanwen dictionary tells me is "What : I : Study : Tangut"
What’s tangut for “do it”?
August 16, 2026 at 2:46 PM
What’s tangut for “do it”?