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• 1 Classification
• 2 Geographic distribution
• 3 History
• 4 Official status
• 5 Dialects
• 6 Sounds
  • 6.1 Uyghur consonants
• 7 Grammar
• 8 Vocabulary
• 9 Writing system
• 10 Text sample
• 11 Notes
• 12 See also
• 13 External links

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[edit] Classification

The Uyghur language belongs to the southeastern branch of the Turkic language family, which is grouped by some linguists among the Altaic languages.

[edit] Geographic distribution

Uyghur is spoken by 8.5 million (2004) in China, mostly in the far western Xinjiang Autonomous Region. Uyghur is also spoken by 300,000 in Kazakhstan, and there are Uyghur-speaking communities in Afghanistan, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA, and Uzbekistan.

[edit] History

Like the Uzbek language, the Uyghur language is descended from Chagatay Turkic common to Central Asian regions under the Chagatay and Timurid dyansties between 13 and 19th centuries, in turn descended from the Göktürk language. The Chagatay Turkic language in turn owed its origin in the Turkic dialects of the Qarluks and the Karakhanid state, centered around Kashgar. Contrary to some official histories, the Idikut states of Hami and Turpan, which would be properly labeled "Uyghur" during the Karakhanid and Mongol Yuan periods, spoke a dialect closer to Yugur than to Qarluk-Karakhanid. However these oases came under Chagatay and Timurid rule later in the 14th century, and slowly adopted the common language of the Muslim state when their own Buddhist culture eventually died out. Whereas colloquial Chagatay Turkic in Uzbekistan came under heavy modification by absorbing a Tajik Language substrate and a Tatar or Kazakh superstrate, the local variants in what is today Xinjiang came into contact with substratal local languages in Khotan, Kumul (Hami), Turpan and Gulja (Ili), notably the Indo-European substrates of Khotan and Turpan, and the distinctive Turkic language in Hami and Turpan closer to Yugur than Chagatay Turkic. Kashgar, being an important political and religious center of the Xinjiang Chagatayid states, gave rise to a Kashgarlik variety of the language with great currency in inter-oasis trade. However, since the 19th century Jadid Movement in Xinjiang, the Ili variety, one developed rather recently by Uyghur migrants from all oases since as late as 17th century, became the basis for modern standard Uyghur. This owed much to the strategic location of Ili being an entrepot between Xinjiang and Soviet, Uzbek and Afghan Central Asia, to the relative modern outlook of the Ililik intelligentsia, and to the homogeneous nature of the Ililik dialect as combining features from dialects of all Uyghur oases.

[edit] Official status

The Uyghurs are one of the 56 official nationalities in China, and Uyghur is an official language of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

[edit] Dialects

The dialects of Uyghur identified by the Ethnologue are Central Uyghur, Hotan (Hetian), and Lop (Luobu). There are two main languages in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region: Uyghur and manderin Chinese. Manderin Chinese is not used widely in southern Xinjiang. About 80 newspapers and magazines are available in Uighur; five TV channels and ten publishers serve as the Uighur media. The same as in all China, all of the information and news provided has to be censored by the government.

[edit] Sounds

Syllable structure can be CV, CVC, or CVCC. However, Uyghur phonology tends to simplify phonemic consonant clusters by means of elision and epenthesis. Uyghur is not a tonal language. Like other Turkic languages, Uyghur has vowel harmony.

Furthermore, it distinguishes short and long vowels that respond differently to certain phonological processes, but vowel length distinctions are not indicated in the official orthographies, nor is the difference between front /i/ and back /ɯ/ which plays a phonological role. Of particular note is the Uyghur-specific feature of "vowel reduction" (or "vowel raising") in which unrounded non-high vowels in initial open syllables followed by /ɯ/ or /i/ are changed to [e] and unrounded vowels in other non-final open syllables are changed to [ɪ]; e.g. |al-Iŋ| → /eliŋ/ (cf. Turkish alın) ‘take!’, |ata-lAr-Im-Iz| → /atilirimiz/ (cf. Turkish atalarımız) ‘our fathers’ — not *etilirimiz in Uyghur because the second syllable has an underlying /a/, not /ɯ/: ata ‘father’; cf. |at-Im-Iz| → /etimiz/ (cf. Turkish atımız) ‘our horse’).

Another phonological Uyghur feature, which is rare among Turkic languages, is that the language is “non-rhotic”, similar to many English dialects of Southern England and New England. Syllable-final /r/ is “dropped;” more correctly speaking, it is assimilated to the preceding vowel and lengthens it; e.g., Uyghurlar [ʔʊɪ'ʁʊːlaː] ‘Uyghurs’. Many speakers occasionally do sound syllable-final /r/, for instance when they enunciate very carefully, such as in recitation or song or when wanting to teach non-Uyghurs “good” Uyghur, and in so doing they often overcompensate by inserting an [r] after a long vowels where there is no phonemic /r/.

[edit] Uyghur consonants

currently used in the former Soviet Union, corresponding modern Turkish spellings and the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The table is arranged according to the order of the present alphabet. Comparison of Uyghur alphabets Arabic Latin Cyrillic ULY Turkish IPA   Arabic Latin Cyrillic ULY Turkish IPA ئا A a A a A a A a /a/ ق Ķ ķ Қ қ Q q K k /q/ ئە Ə ə Ə ə E e E e /æ/ ك K k K k K k K k /k/ ب B b Б б B b B b /b/ ڭ -ng Ң ң -ng -ng /ŋ/ پ P p П п P p P p /p/ گ G g Г г G g G g /ɡ/ ت T t Т т T t T t /t/ ل L l Л л L l L l /l/ ج J j Җ җ J j C c /ʤ/ م M m М м M m M m /m/ چ Q q Ч ч CH ch Ç ç /ʧ/ ن N n Н н N n N n /n/ خ H h X x X x H h /x/ ھ H̡ h̡ Һ һ H h H h /h/ د D d Д д D d D d /d/ ئو O o О о О о O o /o/ ر R r Р р R r R r /r/ ئۇ U u У у U u U u /u/ ز Z z З з Z z Z z /z/ ئۆ Ɵ ɵ Ө ө Ö ö Ö ö /ø/ ژ Ⱬ ⱬ Ж ж J j J j /ʒ/ ئۈ Ü ü Ү ү Ü ü Ü ü /y/ س S s С с S s S s /s/ ۋ V v В в W w V v /v/ ش X x Ш ш SH sh Ş ş /ʃ/ ئې E e E e É é E e /e/ غ Ƣƣ Ғ ғ GH gh Ğ ğ /ʁ/ ئى I i И и I i İ i/I ı /i/ or /ɨ/ ف F f Ф ф F f F f /f/ ي Y y Й й Y y Y y /j/

The Uyghur Cyrillic alphabet has two additional letters, which are a combination of two sounds. Here they are with the Arabic and Latin equivalents.

Cyrillic Arabic Latin Ю ю يۇ yu Я я يا ya Uyghur alphabet (Uyghur Latin Yéziqi̡ -- ULY). Uyghur.

Reference: http://www.uyghurdictionary.org/excerpts/An%20Introduction%20to%20LSU.pdf

Note that the characters in the above tables will not be displayed correctly by your browser unless Unicode fonts are installed on your computer.

[edit] Text sample

Here the sample of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 1) in Uyghur:

Sample of writing in various Uyghur orthographies K̡ona Yezik̡ ھەممە ئادەم زاتىدىنلا ئەركىن، ئىززەت-ھۆرمەت ۋە ھوقۇقتا بابباراۋەر بولۇپ تۇغۇلغان. ئۇلار ئەقىلغە ۋە ۋىجدانغا ئىگە ھەمدە بىر-بىرىگە قېرىنداشلىق مۇناسىۋىتىگە خاس روھ بىلەن مۇئامىلە قىلىشى كېرەك Yengi Yezik̡ H̡əmmə adəm zatidinla ərkin, izzət-h̡ɵrmət wə hok̡uk̡ta babbarawər bolup tuƣulƣan. Ular ək̡ilƣə wə wijdanƣa igə h̡əmdə bir-birigə k̡erindaxlik̡ munasiwitigə hax roh bilən mu’amilə k̡ilixi kerək. Cyrillic Uyghur Һәммә адәм затидинла әркин, иззәт-һөрмәт вә һоқуқта баббаравәр болуп туғулған. Улар әқилғә вә виджданға игә һәмдә бир-биригә қериндашлиқ мунасивитигә хаш рох билән му’амилә қилиши керәк. ULY Hemme adem zatidinla erkin, izzet-hörmet we hoquqta babbarawer bolup tughulghan. Ular eqilghe we wijdan'gha ige hemde bir-birige qérindashliq munasiwitige xas roh bilen muamile qilishi kérek. Turkish Uyghur Hemme adem zatidinla erkin, izzet-hörmet we xoquqta babbarawer bolup tuğulğan. Ular eqilğe we wicdanğa ige hemde bir-birige qérindaşliq munasiwitige xaş rox bilen mu’amile qilişi kérek. English All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Its name in other languages in which it might be often referred to is as follows:
   • Simplified Chinese: 维吾尔语; Traditional Chinese: 維吾爾語; Pinyin: Wéiwú'ěryǔ in Chinese
   • Уйгурский (язык) (transliteration: Uygurskiy (yazyk)) in Russian.

[edit] See also

• Languages of China

[edit] External links

Dictionary

Ethnologue report for Uighur

Online Uyghur-English Dictionary

Arabic Uyghur in different fonts

Disharmony and derived transparency in Uyghur Vowel Harmony

hide] v • d • e Altaic languages Turkic languages • Mongolic languages • Tungusic languages • Japonic languages* • Korean language* Notes: *Japonic and Korean are not generally recognized as belonging to the Altaic language family. A hypothetical language family that would include both the Japonic languages and Korean is sometimes referred to as the Buyeo language family. Turkic languages Bulgar Bulgar† | Chuvash | Hunnic† | Khazar† Uyghur Old Turkic† | Aini²| Chagatay† | Ili Turki | Lop | Uyghur | Uzbek Kypchak Baraba | Bashkir | Crimean Tatar¹ | Cuman† | Karachay-Balkar | Karaim | Karakalpak | Kazakh | Kipchak† | Krymchak | Kumyk | Nogai | Tatar | Urum¹ | Altay | Kyrgyz Oghuz Afshar | Azerbaijani | Crimean Tatar¹ | Gagauz | Khorasani Turkish | Ottoman Turkish† | Pecheneg | Qashqai | Salar | Turkish | Turkmen | Urum¹ Khalaj Khalaj Northeastern Chulym | Dolgan | Fuyü Gïrgïs | Khakas | Northern Altay | Shor | Tofa | Tuvan | Western Yugur | Sakha / Yakut Notes: ¹Listed in more than one group, ²Mixed language, ³Disputed, †Extinct