Khitan: deciphering China's forgotten Para-Mongolic language

A steppe empire's undeciphered glyphs are at the verge of recovery. Meet the Khitan language!

~ Briefly ~

This animation tells the linguistic story of a script that was invented over a thousand years ago and lasted for three centuries. Despite everything written about them in Chinese history and the written evidence in their language, their scripts remain somewhat of a mystery. We'll get an understanding of the difference between the two scripts, the attempts at decipherment so far, and what we do know about them. We'll end comparing identifiable Khitan vocabulary to other languages to see where it fits into North Asia's linguistic scene.

~ Credits ~

Art, narration and animation by Josh from NativLang. A bit of the music, too.

Doc full of sources for claims and credits for music, sfx, fonts and images:

[NativLang]

I get to be among the first to share the story of Khitan with a wider English-speaking audience! So if you liked Etruscan...

[Saikhnaaaaa]

As a Mongolian speaker, it’s fascinating to see such familiar words being written in what, at first, seems like Chinese characters. Thank you for these new insights!

[romanr.]

As someone who’s studied Chinese, is familiar with how Chinese characters work, and has already learned hundreds of characters, looking at the Khitan characters is such a surreal experience; they undeniably resemble Chinese characters, but so many things are also just off about them, it’s bordering on uncanny. I can just stare at them for hours.

[Vitalis]

Fun fact: Kitay is a name of China in Russian.

[beregu]

10:07 just sounds 100% Mongolian if I ignore the pronunciation.
Sounded like “Kidan guren usgetei”, literally means “the Great State of Khitan has a script” in Mongolian.

In Mongolian, Khitans are called “Hyatan” or “Kidaan”.

[Vitalis]

All this talk about the extinct languages made me think of Tocharian. We need a video about them!

[SaposaBear]

NativLang, you're inspiring many young people, both in Mongolia and around the world, to consider with awe and curiosity the linguistic origins of our obscure region--and I thank you for that.


Khitan is such an underrated language, especially among the Mongols. Even though we study it to be part of our ancestors, because we don't study the logograms, we're so ignorant and disavowing of them. I only learned to differ when I read Gyorgy Kara's "Books of the Mongolian Nomads".

[kevwang]

About two years ago I was in Hong Kong, and a friend took me to a linguistics bookstore tucked away in a small office building room that was going out of business and clearing out its books. One of the books on sale was a heavy volume on the Khitan small script. I have been mad at myself ever since for not bringing enough cash to buy it.

[lukexu]

As a native Chinese speaker, the small script gives me the impression of writing Korean Hangul with Japanese Hiragana. These scripts are clearly related to Chinese characters, just like Hiragana, but can combine with each other to make a single sound like Hangul. This video is really fascinating. If you want to know more about related stuff, look up the Tangut language online. The Tangut people founded their kingdom to the west of Khitan and the north-west of Song dynasty, and were destroyed by the Mongolian conquest too. Their script looks even more Chinese-ish for non-speakers, although it's more complex in appearance and having its own way of forming new characters.

[mpmqbi]

THE GREAT
MIDDLE
[something]
KHITAN
STATE

[MaraK_dialmformara]

When I was just starting to study linguistics, this was the kind of thing I wanted to do. Alas, I was pushed toward topics I could make a career out of.

[Nahboiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii]

I never understand half the stuff you say but I still enjoy it

[mng]

As someone from a Chinese-dominant region working on an extensive project about Chinese history and culture, this is really helpful! Thank you! The Khitans are an underrated part of Chinese history and should not be neglected either.

[LAFN-sioz]

Khitan, Jurchen, and Tangut. The three extinct languages that look like Chinese and were neglected for a long time. Thanks for making this video.

[Bretten]

I would really like to see a post on the Tangut language/script. It would be somewhat similar to Khitan in the sense that it is a non-Chinese language adopting a cumbersome Chinese influenced script for their language. In the case of Tangut, it's known as one of the most obtuse scripts ever used on earth, consequently, it's largely undeciphered. Even the basic Chinese numerals are so insanely complex in the Tangut script, check out the wiki for sure, super interesting.

[grigoryzinoviev]

"Water bottom-in tree-on bird sits" is EXACTLY how you would say it in Korean

[DerangedManiac]

Another big mystery language of early Mongolia that deserves a video is Ruanruan!

Perhaps a video on the Paleosiberian languages as well?

[bonquiquixoxo]

The rules for the small script remind me of hangeul

[DerMessiasderSatire]

YES! More Chinese/Eastern Asian language stuff. Holy damn, am I excited. When you upload, to a language nerd, it's like Christmas.

[MikeDCWeld]

Khitan has a very important lesson to teach us. When you invent a new language, you *must* write extensively about its pronunciation, grammar, and origins in _at least _*_one_* mainstream language of the time and publish furiously! Bonus points if you can get copies into government libraries.