section_path: Vocabulary and adaptation/Graphically derived scripts
section_name: Graphically derived scripts
paragraph_text: Graphically derived scripts
  
  Between the 10th and 13th centuries, dynasties founded by non-Han peoples in northern China also created scripts for their languages that were inspired by Chinese characters, but did not use them directly: these included the Khitan large script, Khitan small script, Tangut script, and Jurchen script. This has occurred in other contexts as well: Nüshu was a script used by Yao women to write the Xiangnan Tuhua language, and bopomofo (注音符号; 注音符號; zhùyīn fúhào) is a semi-syllabary first invented in 1907 to represent the sounds of Standard Chinese; both use forms graphically derived from Chinese characters. Other scripts within China that have adapted some characters but are otherwise distinct include the Geba syllabary used to write the Naxi language, the script for the Sui language, the script for the Yi languages, and the syllabary for the Lisu language.
  
  Chinese characters have also been repurposed phonetically to transcribe the sounds of non-Chinese languages. For example, the only manuscripts of the 13th-century Secret History of the Mongols that have survived from the medieval era use characters in this manner to write the Mongolian language.