Khitan: Understanding the Language Behind the Scripts

Khitan was the dynastic language of the Liao empire in Manchuria and Northern China (907-1115). Although today extinct, samples of Khitan are preserved in two native scripts, known as the Khitan Large Script and the Khitan Small Script. Both scripts may be classified as “Sinitic” or “Sinoform” in the typological sense, though only the Large Script has a direct connection with the Chinese script. Recent progress in the decipherment of, in particular, the Khitan Small Script allows the lexicon and grammar of the Khitan language to be assessed in much more detail than before. Khitan may be defined as a Para-Mongolic language, meaning that it represents a branch related to, but collateral with, the extant and historically known Mongolic languages. The present paper examines the genetic position of the Khitan language with regard to Mongolic with the help of the methods of comparative linguistics, as applied to the deciphered Khitan language material.