Uyghur language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Uyghur (ئۇيغۇرچە‎/Uyƣurqə/Уйғурчә, or ئۇيغۇر ڌﻳلى‎/Uyƣur tili/Уйғур тили)^[1] is a Turkic language spoken by the Uyghur people in Xinjiang (also called East Turkestan or Uyghuristan), formerly also “Sinkiang” and “Chinese Turkestan,” a Central Asian region administered by China. In English, the name of the ethnicity and its language is spelled variously as Uyghur, Uighur, Uygur and Uigur. Many English speakers pronounce it as "wEEger" (IPA: [ˈwi.ɡɚ]) but the pronunciation "ooygOOr" (IPA: [uj.ˈɡur]) is closer to native [ʔʊɪ'ʁʊː].

[edit] Classification

Uyghur is one of the southeastern Turkic languages, which is grouped by some linguists as a branch of Altaic.

[edit] Geographic distribution

A bilingual sign using Uyghur, Chinese and Hanyu Pinyin in Yining.

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, Germany, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA, and Uzbekistan.

[edit] History

This article or section does not cite its references or sources. Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) This article has been tagged since July 2006.

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. 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, Qomul (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 intellegentsia, 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

Population statistics from the 2000 census data show the higher concentration of Uyghurs in south Xinjiang, and Han people in north Xinjiang.

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 Chinese. 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.

All of the information and news provided has to be permitted by governmental offices.

[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 insert an [r] after a long vowels where there is no phonemic /r/.

[edit] Uyghur consonants

	Labial	Labiodental	Dental	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Voiceless stop	p		t		k	ʔ
Voiced stop	b		d		ɡ
Voiceless affricate				tʃ
Voiced affricate				dʒ
Voiceless fricative		f	s	ʃ	x	h
Voiced fricative		v	z	ʒ	ɣ
Nasal	m		n		ŋ
Lateral			l
Rhotic			r
Semivowel	w			j

[edit] Grammar

Uyghur has Subject Object Verb word order, postpositions, genitives, adjectives, numerals, relatives before noun heads, and initial question words. There are prefixes and suffixes. Word order distinguishes subjects and indirect objects, topic and comment. There are 8 noun cases shown by suffixes. Verb suffixes mark subject person, number, 2nd person marks plural and 3 levels of respect. Types of verbs include passive, reflexive, reciprocal and causative.

[edit] Vocabulary

Uyghur vocabulary is basically from Turkic stock, but like Uzbek has taken on a large quantity of loan words from Persian. Many internationalisms entered the Uyghur language via Russian, and there are some more recent loans from Chinese.

[edit] Writing system

Main article: Uyghur script

The language traditionally used the Arabic script since the 10th century. The Chinese government introduced a Roman script closely resembling the Soviet Uniform Turkic Alphabet in 1969, but the Arabic script was reintroduced in 1983, but with extra diacritics to distinguish all vowels of Uyghur. Cyrillic script has been used and is in parts still being used to write Uyghur in areas previously dominated by Russians, and another Roman script, based on Turkish orthography, is used in Turkey and on the internet.

The following table is a comparison of the present Arabic alphabet (K̡ona Yezik̡, Kona Yeziq “Old Writing”), the Latin (Yengi Yezik̡, Yeŋi Yeziq “New Writing”) alphabet used from 1969 to 1987, the Cyrillic script 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	Z¸ z¸	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	B b	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

ULY: Between November 2000 and July 2001, five conferences were held at Xinjiang University in Ürümchi to introduce a unified Latin-Script Uyghur alphabet (Uyghur Latin Yéziqi̡ -- ULY).

The ULY project was covered by the official XUAR media and on the internet to inform the public of the effort. The media, in particular, was very careful not to send the wrong signal of an incipient writing reform. Nevertheless, even today some people still hesitate to use the term ULY since they fear its potential association with an attempt to reform the common script. Others think it is important to have one-to-one correspondence (or a norm) between Latin-Script Uyghur and Arabic-Script 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

Uyghur language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Online Uyghur-English Multiscript Dictionary
• Ethnologue report for Uighur
• Online Uyghur-English Dictionary
• Download Page for Standard Uyghur Fonts
• Arabic Uyghur in different fonts

v • d • e Turkic languages
West Turkic
Bolgar	Bolgar* | Chuvash | Hunnic* | Khazar*
Chagatay	Aini2| Chagatay* | Ili Turki | Lop | Uyghur | Uzbek
Kypchak	Baraba | Bashkir | Crimean Tatar1 | Cuman* | Karachay-Balkar | Karaim | Karakalpak | Kazakh | Kipchak* | Krymchak | Kumyk | Nogay | Tatar | Urum1
Oghuz	Afshar | Azerbaijani | Crimean Tatar1 | Gagauz | Khorasani Turkish | Ottoman Turkish* | Pecheneg* | Qashqai | Salar | Turkish | Turkmen | Urum1
East Turkic
Khalaj	Khalaj
Kyrgyz-Kypchak	Altay | Kyrgyz
Uyghur	Chulym | Dolgan | Fuyü Gïrgïs | Khakas | Northern Altay | Shor | Tofa | Tuvan | Western Yugur | Sakha / Yakut
Old Turkic*
Notes: 1 Listed in more than one group, 2 Mixed language, * Extinct