Uyghur language

UyghurorUighur(/ˈwiːɡʊər,-ɡər/;ئۇيغۇر تىلى,Уйғур тили,Uyghur tili, Uyƣur tili[ʊjˈʁʊɾ.tɪ.lɪ]orئۇيغۇرچە,Уйғурчә,Uyghurche, Uyƣurqə[ʊj.ʁʊɾˈtʃɛ],CTA: Uyğurçä; formerly known asTurkiorEastern Turki) is aTurkic languagewritten in aUyghur Perso-Arabic scriptwith 8–13 million speakers,spoken primarily by theUyghur peoplein theXinjiang Uyghur Autonomous RegionofWestern China. Apart from Xinjiang, significant communities of Uyghur speakers are also located inKazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan, andUzbekistan, and various other countries have Uyghur-speaking expatriate communities.Uyghur is anofficial languageof the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; it is widely used in both social and official spheres, as well as in print, television, and radio. Otherethnic minorities in Xinjiangalso use Uyghur as acommon language.
Uyghur belongs to theKarlukbranch of theTurkic language family, which includes languages such asUzbek. Like many other Turkic languages, Uyghur displaysvowel harmonyandagglutination, lacksnoun classesorgrammatical gender, and is aleft-branching languagewithsubject–object–verbword order. More distinctly, Uyghur processes includevowel reductionandumlauting, especially in northern dialects. In addition to other Turkic languages, Uyghur has historically been strongly influenced byArabicandPersian, and more recently byRussianandMandarin Chinese.
The modified Arabic-derived writing system is the most common and the only standard in China,although other writing systems are used for auxiliary and historical purposes. Unlike most Arabic-derived scripts, the Uyghur Arabic alphabet has mandatory marking of all vowels due to modifications to the original Perso-Arabic script made in the 20th century. Two Latin alphabets and one Cyrillic alphabet are also used, though to a much lesser extent. The two Latin-based and the Arabic-based Uyghur alphabets have 32 characters each; the Uyghur Cyrillic alphabet also uses twoiotatedvowel letters (Ю and Я).
TheMiddle Turkic languagesare the direct ancestor of theKarluk languages, including Uyghur and theUzbek language.
Modern Uyghur is not descended fromOld Uyghur, rather, it is a descendant of theKarluk languagespoken by theKara-Khanid Khanate,as described byMahmud al-Kashgariin theDīwān Lughāt al-Turk.According toGerard Clauson,Western Yuguris considered to be the true descendant of Old Uyghur and is also called "Neo-Uyghur". According to Frederik Coene, Modern Uyghur and Western Yugur belong to entirely different branches of the Turkic language family, respectively theSoutheastern Turkic languagesand theNortheastern Turkic languages.TheWestern Yugur language, although in geographic proximity, is more closely related to theSiberian Turkic languagesin Siberia.Robert Dankoffwrote that the Turkic language spoken in Kashgar and used in Kara Khanid works was Karluk, not (Old) Uyghur.
Robert Barkley Shawwrote, "In the Turkish of Káshghar and Yarkand (which some European linguists have called Uïghur, a name unknown to the inhabitants of those towns, who know their tongue simply as Túrki), ... This would seem in many case to be a misnomer as applied to the modern language of Kashghar".Sven Hedinwrote, "In these cases it would be particularly inappropriate to normalize to the East Turkish literary language, because by so doing one would obliterate traces of national elements which have no immediate connection with the Kaschgar Turks, but on the contrary are possibly derived from the ancient Uigurs".
Probably around 1077,a scholar of the Turkic languages,Mahmud al-KashgarifromKashgarin modern-dayXinjiang, published a Turkic language dictionary and description of the geographic distribution of many Turkic languages,Dīwān ul-Lughat al-Turk(English:Compendium of the Turkic Dialects; Uyghur:تۈركى تىللار دىۋانى‎,Türki Tillar Diwani). The book, described by scholars as an "extraordinary work,"documents the rich literary tradition of Turkic languages; it contains folk tales (including descriptions of the functions ofshamans)and didactic poetry (propounding "moral standards and good behaviour"), besides poems and poetry cycles on topics such as hunting and loveand numerous other language materials.Other Kara-Khanid writers wrote works in the Turki Karluk Khaqani language.Yusuf Khass Hajibwrote theKutadgu Bilig. Ahmad bin Mahmud Yukenaki (Ahmed bin Mahmud Yükneki) (Ahmet ibn Mahmut Yükneki) (Yazan Edib Ahmed b. Mahmud Yükneki) (w:tr:Edip Ahmet Yükneki) wrote theHibat al-ḥaqāyiq(هبة الحقايق) (Hibet-ül hakayik) (Hibet ül-hakayık) (Hibbetü'l-Hakaik) (Atebetüʼl-hakayik) (w:tr:Atabetü'l-Hakayık).
Middle Turkic languages, through the influence ofPerso-Arabicafter the 13th century, developed into theChagatai language, aliterary languageused all acrossCentral Asiauntil the early 20th century. After Chaghatai fell intoextinction, thestandard versionsof Uyghur andUzbekwere developed from dialects in the Chagatai-speaking region, showing abundant Chaghatai influence. Uyghur language today shows considerablePersianinfluence as a result from Chagatai, including numerous Persianloanwords.
Modern Uyghur religious literature includes the Taẕkirah, biographies of Islamic religious figures and saints. The Taẕkirah is a genre of literature written about Sufi Muslim saints inAltishahr. Written sometime in the period between 1700 and 1849, the Chagatai language (modern Uyghur)Taẕkirah of the Four Sacrificed Imamsprovides an account of the Muslim Karakhanid war against the Khotanese Buddhists, containing a story about Imams, from Mada'in city (possibly in modern-day Iraq) came 4 Imams who travelled to help the Islamic conquest of Khotan, Yarkand and Kashgar by Yusuf Qadir Khan, the Qarakhanid leader.The shrines of Sufi Saints are revered inAltishahras one of Islam's essential components and the tazkirah literature reinforced the sacredness of the shrines. Anyone who does not believe in the stories of the saints is guaranteed hellfire by the tazkirahs. It is written, "And those who doubt Their Holinesses the Imams will leave this world without faith and on Judgement Day their faces will be black ..." in theTazkirah of the Four Sacrificed Imams.Shaw translated extracts from the Tazkiratu'l-Bughra on the Muslim Turki war against the "infidel" Khotan.The Turki-languageTadhkirah i Khwajaganwas written by M. Sadiq Kashghari.Historical works like theTārīkh-i amniyyaandTārīkh-i ḥamīdiwere written byMusa Sayrami.
TheQing dynastycommissioned dictionaries on the major languages of China which included Chagatai Turki language, such as thePentaglot Dictionary.
The historical term "Uyghur" was appropriated for the language that had been known as Eastern Turki by government officials in the Soviet Union in 1922 and in Xinjiang in 1934.Sergey Malovwas behind the idea of renaming Turki to Uyghurs.The use of the term Uyghur has led to anachronisms when describing the history of the people.In one of his books the term Uyghur was deliberately not used byJames A. Millward.The name Khāqāniyya was given to theQarlukswho inhabited Kāshghar and Bālāsāghūn, the inhabitants were not Uighur, but their language has been retroactively labelled as Uighur by scholars.The Qarakhanids called their own language the "Turk" or "Kashgar" language and did not use Uighur to describe their own language, Uighur was used to describe the language of non-Muslims but Chinese scholars have anachronistically called a Qarakhanid work written by Kashgari as "Uighur".The name "Altishahri-Jungharian Uyghur" was used by the Soviet educated Uyghur Qadir Haji in 1927.
The Uyghur language belongs to theKarluk Turkic(Qarluq) branch of theTurkic language family. It is closely related toÄynu,Lop,Ili Turki, theextinct languageChagatay(the East Karluk languages), and more distantly toUzbek(which is West Karluk).
It is widely accepted that Uyghur has three main dialects, all based on their geographical distribution. Each of these main dialects have a number of sub-dialects which all aremutually intelligibleto some extent.
The Central dialects are spoken by 90% of the Uyghur-speaking population, while the two other branches of dialects only are spoken by a relatively small minority.
Vowel reductionis common in the northern parts of where Uyghur is spoken, but not in the south.
Uyghur is spoken by an estimated 8–11 million people in total.In addition to being spoken primarily in theXinjiang Uyghur Autonomous RegionofWestern China, mainly by theUyghur people, Uyghur was also spoken by some 300,000 people inKazakhstanin 1993, some 90,000 inKyrgyzstanandUzbekistanin 1998, 3,000 inAfghanistanand 1,000 inMongolia, both in 1982.Smaller communities also exist inAlbania,Australia,Belgium,Canada,Germany,Indonesia,Pakistan,Saudi Arabia,Sweden,Tajikistan,Turkey,United Kingdomand theUnited States(New York City).
TheUyghursare one of the 56recognized ethnic groups in Chinaand Uyghur is an official language ofXinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, along withStandard Chinese. As a result, Uyghur can be heard in most social domains in Xinjiang and also in schools, government and courts.Of the other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, those populous enough to have their ownautonomous prefectures, such as theKazakhsand theKyrgyz, have access to schools and government services in their native language. Smaller minorities, however, do not have a choice and must attend Uyghur-medium schools.These include theXibe,Tajiks,DaursandRussians.
The Chinese government have implemented bi-lingual education in most regions of Xinjiang.The bi-lingual education system teaches Xinjiang's students all STEM classes using only Mandarin Chinese, or a combination of Uighur and Chinese. However, research have shown that due to differences in the order of words and grammar between the Uighur and the Chinese language, many students face obstacles in learning courses such as Mathematics under the bi-lingual education system.
Uyghur language has been supported byGoogle Translatesince February 2020.
About 80newspapersandmagazinesare available in Uyghur; fiveTV channelsand tenpublishersserve as the Uyghurmedia. Outside of China,Radio Free Asiaprovides news in Uyghur.
Poet and activistMuyesser Abdul'ehedteaches the language to diaspora children online as well as publishing a magazine written by children for children in Uyghur.
Uyghur has a seven-vowel inventory, with[i]and[e]not distinguished.The vowel letters of the Uyghur language are, in their alphabetical order (in the Latin script),⟨a⟩,⟨e⟩,⟨ë⟩,⟨i⟩,⟨o⟩,⟨ö⟩,⟨u⟩,⟨ü⟩. There are no diphthongs.Hiatusoccurs in some loanwords.Uyghur vowels are distinguished on the bases of height, backness and roundness. It has been argued, within a lexical phonology framework, that/e/has a back counterpart/ɤ/, and modern Uyghur lacks a clear differentiation between/i/and/ɯ/.
Uyghur vowels are by defaultshort, but long vowels also exist because of historical vowelassimilation(above) and through loanwords.  Underlyingly long vowels would resist vowel reduction anddevoicing, introduce non-final stress, and be analyzed as |Vj| or |Vr| before a few suffixes. However, the conditions in which they are actually pronounced as distinct from their short counterparts have not been fully researched.
The high vowels undergo some tensing when they occur adjacent toalveolars(s,z,r,l),palatals(j),dentals(t̪,d̪,n̪), and post-alveolaraffricates(t͡ʃ,d͡ʒ), e.g.chiraq[t͡ʃʰˈiraq]'lamp',jenubiy[d͡ʒɛnʊˈbiː]'southern',yüz[jyz]'face; hundred',suda[suːˈda]'in/at (the) water'.
Both[i]and[ɯ]undergo apicalisation after alveodental continuants in unstressed syllables, e.g.siler[sɪ̯læː(r)]'you (plural)',ziyan[zɪ̯ˈjɑːn]'harm'. They are medialised after/χ/or before/l/, e.g.til[tʰɨl]'tongue',xizmet[χɨzˈmɛt]'work; job; service'. After velars, uvulars and/f/they are realised as[e], e.g.giram[ɡeˈrʌm]'gram',xelqi[χɛlˈqʰe]'his [etc.] nation',Finn[fen]'Finn'. Between two syllables that contain a rounded back vowel each, they are realised as back, e.g.qolimu[qʰɔˈlɯmʊ]'also his [etc.] arm'.
Any vowel undergoes laxing and backing when it occurs inuvular(/q/,/ʁ/,/χ/) andlaryngeal(glottal) (/ɦ/,/ʔ/) environments, e.g.qiz[qʰɤz]'girl',qëtiq[qʰɤˈtɯq]'yogurt',qeghez[qʰæˈʁæz]'paper',qum[qʰʊm]'sand',qolay[qʰɔˈlʌɪ]'convenient',qan[qʰɑn]'blood',ëghiz[ʔeˈʁez]'mouth',hisab[ɦɤˈsʌp]'number',hës[ɦɤs]'hunch',hemrah[ɦæmˈrʌh]'partner',höl[ɦœɫ]'wet',hujum[ɦuˈd͡ʒʊm]'assault',halqa[ɦɑlˈqʰɑ]'ring'.
Lowering tends to apply to the non-high vowels when a syllable-final liquid assimilates to them, e.g.kör[cʰøː]'look!',boldi[bɔlˈdɪ]'he [etc.] became',ders[dæːs]'lesson',tar[tʰɑː(r)]'narrow'.
Official Uyghur orthographies do not mark vowel length, and also do not distinguish between/ɪ/(e.g.,بىلىم‎/bɪlɪm/'knowledge') and back/ɯ/(e.g.,تىلىم‎/tɯlɯm/'my language'); these two sounds are incomplementary distribution, but phonological analyses claim that they play a role in vowel harmony and are separate phonemes./e/only occurs in words of non-Turkic origin and as the result of vowel raising.
Uyghur has systematicvowel reduction(or vowel raising) as well as vowel harmony. Words usually agree in vowel backness, but compounds, loans, and some other exceptions often break vowel harmony. Suffixes surface with the rightmost [back] value in the stem, and/e,ɪ/are transparent (as they do not contrast for backness). Uyghur also has rounding harmony.
Uyghur voiceless stops are aspirated word-initially and intervocalically.The pairs/p,b/,/t,d/,/k,ɡ/, and/q,ʁ/alternate, with the voiced member devoicing in syllable-final position, except in word-initial syllables. This devoicing process is usually reflected in the official orthography, but an exception has been recently made for certain Perso-Arabic loans.Voiceless phonemes do not become voiced in standard Uyghur.
Suffixes display a slightly different type of consonant alternation. The phonemes/ɡ/and/ʁ/anywhere in a suffix alternate as governed byvowel harmony, where/ɡ/occurs with front vowels and/ʁ/with back ones.  Devoicing of a suffix-initial consonant can occur only in the cases of/d/→[t],/ɡ/→[k], and/ʁ/→[q], when the preceding consonant is voiceless. Lastly, the rule that /g/ must occur with front vowels and/ʁ/with back vowels can be broken when either[k]or[q]in suffix-initial position becomes assimilated by the other due to the preceding consonant being such.
Loan phonemes have influenced Uyghur to various degrees./d͡ʒ/and/χ/were borrowed from Arabic and have been nativized, while/ʒ/from Persian less so./f/only exists in very recent Russian and Chinese loans, since Perso-Arabic (and older Russian and Chinese)/f/became Uyghur/p/. Perso-Arabic loans have also made the contrast between/k,ɡ/and/q,ʁ/phonemic, as they occur as allophones in native words, the former set near front vowels and the latter near a back vowels.  Some speakers of Uyghur distinguish/v/from/w/in Russian loans, but this is not represented in most orthographies.  Other phonemes occur natively only in limited contexts, i.e./h/only in few interjections,/d/,/ɡ/, and/ʁ/rarely initially, and/z/only morpheme-final. Therefore, the pairs*/t͡ʃ,d͡ʒ/,*/ʃ,ʒ/, and*/s,z/do not alternate.
The primarysyllable structureof Uyghur is CV(C)(C).Uyghur syllable structure is usually CV or CVC, but CVCC can also occur in some words. When syllable-coda clusters occur, CC tends to become CVC in some speakers especially if the first consonant is not asonorant.  In Uyghur, any consonant phoneme can occur as the syllableonsetorcoda, except for/ʔ/which only occurs in the onset and/ŋ/, which never occurs word-initially. In general, Uyghurphonologytends to simplifyphonemicconsonantclusters by means ofelisionandepenthesis.
The Karluk language started to be written with the Perso-Arabic script (Kona Yëziq) in the 10th century upon the conversion of the Kara-Khanids to Islam. This Perso-Arabic script (Kona Yëziq) was reformed in the 20th century with modifications to represent all Modern Uyghur sounds including short vowels and eliminate Arabic letters representing sounds not found in Modern Uyghur. Unlike many other modernTurkic languages, Uyghur is primarily written using aPerso-Arabic-based alphabet, although aCyrillic alphabetand twoLatin alphabetsalso are in use to a much lesser extent. Unusually for an alphabet based on the Arabic script, full transcription of vowels is indicated. (Among the Arabic family of alphabets, only a few, such asKurdish, distinguish all vowels without the use of optionaldiacritics.)
The four alphabets in use today can be seen below.
In the table below the alphabets are shown side-by-side for comparison, together with aphonetic transcriptionin theInternational Phonetic Alphabet.
Like other Turkic languages, Uyghur is ahead-finalagglutinative languagewith asubject–object–verbword order.Nounsare inflected fornumberandcase, but notgenderanddefinitenesslike in many other languages. There are two numbers: singular and plural and six different cases:nominative,accusative,dative,locative,ablativeandgenitive.Verbsare conjugated fortense:presentandpast;voice:causativeandpassive;aspect:continuousandmood: e.g. ability. Verbs may be negated as well.
The corelexiconof the Uyghur language is ofTurkicstock, but due to different kinds oflanguage contactthroughout its history, it has adopted manyloanwords.Kazakh,UzbekandChagataiare allTurkic languageswhich have had a strong influence on Uyghur. Many words ofArabicorigin have come into the language throughPersianandTajik, which again have come through Uzbek and to a greater extent, Chagatai. Many words of Arabic origin have also entered the language directly throughIslamic literatureafter the introduction ofIslamaround the 10th century.
Chinesein Xinjiang andRussianelsewhere had the greatestinfluence on Uyghur. Loanwords from these languages are all quite recent, although older borrowings exist as well, such as borrowings fromDungan, aMandarin languagespoken by theDungan peopleofCentral Asia. A number of loanwords ofGermanorigin have also reached Uyghur through Russian.
Code-switchingwithStandard Chineseis common in spoken Uyghur, but stigmatized in formal contexts.Xinjiang Televisionand other mass media, for example, will use the rare Russian loanwordaplisin(апельсин,apel'sin) for the word "orange", rather than the ubiquitous Mandarin loanwordjuze(橘子;júzi). In a sentence, this mixing might look like:
Below are some examples of common loanwords in the Uyghur language.
The following is a sample text in Uyghur of Article 1 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rightswith an English translation.