The Tangut Dictionary by E.I. Kychanov and the Study of the Shapes of the Tangut Script

Abstract

The late Professor, Dr. Evgeny Ivanovich Kychanov not only created a solid academic foundation for the research on history, society, law, and religion of Xixia, but also made a significant contribution to the study of the Tangut language and script. One of them is the Tangut Dictionary (Kyoto University, 2006). The author, as a co-editor of the dictionary, typed Tangut characters in the special font, checked phonetic-reconstruc­tion forms, and worked on the arrangement of the characters in the index. Although the dictionary’s method to find the character index is unique, it is useful for the study of the shapes of the Tangut script from the viewpoint of current research. The author discusses some topics from the viewpoint of linguistics.