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Khitan (or Kitan, also known as Liao, ) is a now-extinct language once spoken by the Khitan people (388–1243). It was the official language of the Liao dynasty (907–1125) and the Qara Khitai (1124–1218). Khitan appears to have been related to the Mongolic languages;〔Herbert Franke, John King Fairbank, Denis Crispin Twitchett, Roderick MacFarquhar, Denis Twitchett, Albert Feuerwerker. ''The Cambridge History of China'', Vol. 3: ''Sui and T'ang China, 589–906. Part 1'', p.364〕 Juha Janhunen states, "()he conception is gaining support that Khitan was a language in some respects radically different from the historically known Mongolic languages. If this view proves to be correct, Khitan is, indeed, best classified as a Para-Mongolic language." Khitan was written using two mutually exclusive writing systems known as the Khitan large script and the Khitan small script. The small script, which was a syllabary, was used until the Jurchen-speaking Jin dynasty (1115–1234) replaced it in 1191. The large script was logographic like Chinese and may have been used by Para-Mongolic groups as far back as the Tuoba. == Records == The ''History of Liao'' contains a volume of Khitan words transcribed in Chinese characters titled "Glossary of National Language" (國語解). It is found in Chapter 116.〔(遼史/卷116 卷116 ).〕 The Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty erroneously identified the Khitan people and their language with the Solons, leading him to use the Solon language to "correct" Chinese character transcriptions of Khitan names in the ''History of Liao'' in his ''Imperial Liao-Jin-Yuan Three Histories National Language Explanation'' (欽定遼金元三史國語解) project. The Liao dynasty referred to the Khitan language with the term Guoyu 國語 "National language", which was also used by other non-Han Chinese dynasties in China to refer to their languages like Manchu of the Qing, Classical Mongolian during the Yuan dynasty, Jurchen during the Jin, and Xianbei during the Northern Wei. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Khitan language」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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