西夏文字的結構

THE STRUCTURE OF TANGUT CHARACTERS

西夏語是屬於漢藏語族、藏緬語系的語言。漢藏語族中保有古代文字記錄的語言，除了漢、藏、緬語外便是西夏語了。關於西夏文字的創造，中國歷史上有幾種不同的記載，一般都據宋史夏國傳，認為是李元昊所制，野利仁榮所演釋，時為大慶元年（公元1036年）。

The Tangut dictionaries ''Ocean of Charaters'' and ''Ocean of characters, Mixed Classes'' :divide characters into their component parts without indicating their functions. However, this kind of information is essential for an understanding of the structure of characters. Without the knowledge of the functions of the component parts of a character, we can not decide whether it is a phonetic compound (形聲字) or a semantic compound (會意字). As Tangut characters make extensive use of semantic compounds, the study of the types of compounds should play an important part in understanding Tangut script. It is through the description of semantic structure that the graphic structure can be linked with the meaning of word.