Tangut

Meanings

Noun

• A Qiangic people of mediaeval northern China.

Proper Noun

• Their Tibeto-Burman language.
• The logographic script uniquely used to write their language.

Origin

• From a Middle Mongolian exonym used by the Mongols, which would become the Classical Mongolian ᠲᠠᠩᠭᠤᠳ that was phonetically transcribed in Ming-era Early Mandarin Chinese as () in the Chinese edition of the Secret History of the Mongols (). The designation ultimately derives from Old Turkic 𐱃𐰭𐰆𐱃 as attested in the 8th-century Bilgä Qaǧan stele. The English word, and similar forms in European languages, derives from Medieval Latin Tangut (*Tangunt in the Leiden manuscript) from the accounts of William of Rubruck compiled in the 1250s. The English form was attested in the writings of Richard Hakluyt who translated parts of William's accounts in the late 16th century.