Uyghur Language Guide

Official language in
China
Also spoken in
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
Script
Arabic, Cyrillic

Where it's spoken

Uyghur is an official language of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, along with Mandarin Chinese. It is spoken in Xinjiang in western China, as well as in neighboring Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and in smaller diaspora communities around the world. Mandarin Chinese is not spoken widely in southern Xinjiang, and Uyghur is used as a common language even among non-Uyghurs in Xinjiang, such as Sibes, Wakhis and Tajiks.

Uyghur has three dialects (northern, Khotan and Lop Nur) and a number of local vernaculars; the modern standard language is founded on the variety of the Ghulja (Yili) region in the northwest.

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Script & pronunciation

The Arabic script has been extended to write languages other than Arabic, Uyghur among them. A modified Perso-Arabic-based script is the current official way of writing Uyghur for the main Uyghur population in Xinjiang, while a Cyrillic script is used in Kazakhstan and other CIS states. A Latin-based script has also been widely used to transliterate Uyghur and in Internet communication.

The Arabic-based Uyghur script is written from right to left. Letters within a word are joined, except after a set of "closing" letters that do not connect to the letter that follows. A word that begins with a vowel is written with a hamza in front of the vowel, as in ئۇيغۇرچە ("in Uyghur") in this app's card مەن ئۇيغۇرچە بىلمەيمەن ("I can't speak Uyghur").

This app's cards write each phrase in the Arabic-based script with a romanization in Latin letters. Some cards split the romanization with hyphens, as in Yakh-shi-mu-siz ("Hello / How are you"), and others do not, as in inglizche sozlemsiz? ("Do you speak English?").

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Grammar essentials

The typical word order is subject–object–verb, so the verb comes last: in مەن ئۇيغۇرچە بىلمەيمەن (Men uy-ghur-che bil-mey-men, "I can't speak Uyghur"), مەن is "I", ئۇيغۇرچە is "in Uyghur", and the verb بىلمەيمەن comes at the end. Uyghur attaches suffixes for person, number, case, mood and so on directly to a word stem, often several on one word, and verbs usually carry at least a tense ending and a person ending. Negation usually also appears as a suffix on the verb, as in بىلمەيمەن (bil-mey-men), which the card glosses as "don't know / can't".

In a sentence built on a noun or adjective, a yes/no question can be made by adding the question particle مۇ (mu), written together with the word before it. The greeting ياخشىمۇسىز (Yakh-shi-mu-siz, "Hello / How are you") contains this particle, and the handbook says it can be thought of as a rearranged form of "you good?" plus the particle. For verbs in the present-future tense, the main way to ask a question is a question suffix attached to the verb before the person ending, as in ئىنگلىزچە سۆزلەمسىز؟ (inglizche sozlemsiz?, "Do you speak English?"). When a question word is used, the particle مۇ is not needed, as in ھاجەتخانا قەيەردە؟ (Ha-jet-kha-na qey-er-de?, "Where is the toilet/bathroom?"), where قەيەردە means "where".

Requests such as ئاستىراق سۆزلىڭ (As-ti-raq söz-ling, "Please speak more slowly") and كەچۈرۈڭ (Ke-chü-rüng, "Excuse me / I'm sorry") end in the suffix that the handbook calls the polite second-person singular imperative.

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Politeness & etiquette

Uyghur speakers distinguish several levels of politeness in the word for "you." The everyday polite سىز (Siz) is used with most people, including teachers, classmates and adult strangers, and it is the most common form heard. سەن (Sen) is a familiar, intimate "you" that conveys a very close friendship or the speaker's superior social rank; because it can also be used to condescend to someone in anger and is potentially offensive, the handbook says it is safest to wait until a person addresses you with سەن before using it back. A separate honorific "you" is used to address elders respectfully, and it is still widely used in southern Xinjiang. The same distinction appears in verb endings: this app's card ئىنگلىزچە سۆزلەمسىز؟ ("Do you speak English?") notes that its polite ending is used with strangers, while the familiar ending is for close acquaintances.

The two most common Uyghur greetings mean literally "Peace!" and "Are you well?", and in reply one typically echoes the question. To "Are you well?" it is also possible to answer "Fine," but decorum dictates that, no matter how badly one is feeling, one never answers "Not good" or "bad." This app's card ياخشىمۇسىز (Yakh-shi-mu-siz, "Hello / How are you") describes it as the most common polite greeting, used with elders or strangers.

Answering a question like "Is that a book?" with only ياق (yaq, "No") sounds rather brusque and impolite, compared with fuller answers such as "No, that is not a book."

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