lingvo.wikisort.org - Alphabet

The Uyghur Arabic alphabet (Uighur: ئۇيغۇر ئەرەب يېزىقى, romanized: Uyghur Ereb Yëziqi or UEY) is a version of the Arabic alphabet used for writing the Uyghur language, primarily by Uyghurs living in China. It is one of several Uyghur alphabets and has been the official alphabet of the Uyghur language since 1982.[1]

Uyghur alphabet ئۇيغۇر يېزىقى
Example of writing in the Uyghur alphabet: Uyghur
Script type	Alphabet
Languages	Uyghur, Sarikoli
Related scripts
Parent systems	Proto-Sinaitic Phoenician Aramaic Nabataean Arabic Perso-Arabic Uyghur alphabet
Unicode
Unicode range	U+0600 to U+06FF U+0750 to U+077F U+FB50 to U+FDFF U+FE70 to U+FEFF
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Uyghur alphabet
ئا ئە ب پ ت ج چ خ د ر ز ژ س ش غ ف ق ك گ ڭ ل م ن ھ ئو ئۇ ئۆ ئۈ ۋ ئې ئى ي
Extended Perso-Arabic script
History Transliteration Diacritics Hamza Numerals Numeration
v t e

The first Perso-Arabic derived alphabet for Uyghur was developed in the 10th century, when Islam was introduced there. The version used for writing the Chagatai language. It became the regional literary language, now known as the Chagatay alphabet. It was used nearly exclusively up to the early 1920s. Alternative Uyghur scripts then began emerging and collectively largely displaced Chagatai; Kona Yëziq, meaning 'old script', now distinguishes it and UEY from the alternatives that are not derived from Arabic. Between 1937 and 1954, the Perso-Arabic alphabet used to write Uyghur was modified by removing redundant letters and adding markings for vowels.[2][3] A Cyrillic alphabet was adopted in the 1950s and a Latin alphabet in 1958.[4] The modern Uyghur Perso-Arabic alphabet was made official in 1978 and reinstituted by the Chinese government in 1983, with modifications for representing Uyghur vowels.[5][6][7][8]

The Arabic alphabet used before the modifications (Kona Yëziq) did not represent Uyghur vowels and according to Robert Barkley Shaw, spelling was irregular and long vowel letters were frequently written for short vowels since most Turki speakers were unsure of the difference between long and short vowels.[9] The pre-modification alphabet used Arabic diacritics (zabar, zer and pesh) to mark short vowels.[10]

Robert Shaw wrote that Turki writers either "inserted or omitted" the letters for the long vowels و‎, ا‎ and ي‎ at their own fancy so multiple spellings of the same word could occur and the ة‎ was used to represent a short a by some Turki writers.[11][12][13]^{[full citation needed]}

The reformed modern Uyghur Arabic alphabet eliminated letters whose sounds were found only in Arabic and spelled Arabic and Persian loanwords such as Islamic religious words, as they were pronounced in Uyghur and not as they were originally spelled in Arabic or Persian.

Current Official Alphabet

The table below lists all 32 letters of the current official Uyghur alphabet used in Xinjiang in alphabetical order, along with their IPA transcriptions.

Current Official Uyghur Arabic Alphabet

№	Letter	IPA	№	Letter	IPA
1	ئا	/ɑ/	17	ق	/q/
2	ئە	/ɛ/	18	ك	/k/
3	ب	/b/	19	گ	/ɡ/
4	پ	/p/	20	ڭ	/ŋ/
5	ت	/t/	21	ل	/l/
6	ج	/d͡ʒ/	22	م	/m/
7	چ	/t͡ʃ/	23	ن	/n/
8	خ	/χ/	24	ھ	/h/
9	د	/d/	25	ئو	/o/
10	ر	/r/	26	ئۇ	/u/
11	ز	/z/	27	ئۆ	/ø/
12	ژ	/ʒ/	28	ئۈ	/y/
13	س	/s/	29	ۋ	/v/~/w/
14	ش	/ʃ/	30	ئې	/e/
15	غ	/ʁ/	31	ئى	/i/
16	ف	/f/	32	ي	/j/

Note: ئ also represents /ʔ/ but it is usually ignored at the beginning of words. It still reads /ʔ/ in the middle, such as سائەت‎ /saʔɛt/ hour.

Spelling of Suffixes

Uyghur spelling borrowed heavily from Chagatai influences. The spelling of the suffixes from Uyghur also matched Chagatai spellings which were kept largely static. Below is an incomplete list of suffixed spellings and their vowel harmony alternatives. Frequently, some Chagatai suffixes were separated from their root words by a zero width non-joiner while in modern Uyghur the root+suffix would be joined.

Chagatai/Uyghur suffix structure

Part of speech	IPA	UEY	UEY Example	Traditional Spelling	Traditional Example
Plural Suffix	/-lɛr/	لەر‎	ئۆردەك‎ + لەر‎ = ئۆردەكلەر‎	لار‎	اوردک‎ + ؜ لار‎ = ؜ اوردکلار‎
	/-lar/	لار‎	قۇش‎ + لار‎ = ؜ قۇشلار‎		قوش‎ +؜ لار‎ = ؜ قوشلار‎

Alphabetical order for reformed modern Uyghur Arabic Script

Letter

ئا، ا‎

ئە، ە‎

ب‎

پ‎

ت‎

ج‎

چ‎

خ‎

د‎

ر‎

ز‎

ژ‎

س‎

ش‎

غ‎

ف‎

IPA

ɑ, a

ɛ, æ

b

p

t

dʒ

tʃ

χ, x

d

r, ɾ

z

ʒ

s

ʃ

ʁ, ɣ

f

Letter

ق‎

ك‎

گ‎

ڭ‎

ل‎

م‎

ن‎

ھ‎

ئو،و‎

ئۇ،ۇ‎

ئۆ، ۆ‎

ئۈ، ۈ‎

ۋ‎

ئې، ې‎

ئى، ى‎

ي‎

IPA

q

k

ɡ

ŋ

l

m

n

h, ɦ

o, ɔ

u, ʊ

ø

y, ʏ

w, v

e

i, ɨ

j

Several of these alternatives were influenced by security-policy considerations of the Soviet Union or the People's Republic of China. (Soviet Uyghur areas experienced several non-Arabic alphabets and the former CIS countries, especially Kazakhstan, now use primarily a Cyrillic-based alphabet, called Uyghur Siril Yëziqi.)

A Pinyin-derived Latin-based alphabet (with additional letters borrowed from Cyrillic), then called "New script" or Uyghur Yëngi Yëziq or UYY, was for a time the only officially approved alphabet used for Uyghur in Xinjiang. It had technical shortcomings and met social resistance; Uyghur Ereb Yëziqi (UEY), an expansion of the old Chagatai alphabet based on the Arabic script, is now recognized, along with a newer Latin-based alphabet called Uyghur Latin Yëziqi or ULY, replacing the former Pinyin-derived alphabet; UEY is sometimes intended when the term "Kona Yëziq" is used.[14]

Historical Spellings

Alphabetical order for the traditional Perso-Arabic Script (Kona Yëziq) used before the 1950s

Letter

ا‎

ب‎

پ‎

ت‎

ج‎

چ‎

ح‎

خ‎

د‎

ر‎

ز‎

س‎

ش‎

Latin

a

b

p

t

j

ch

h

kh

d

r

z

s

sh

Letter

ع‎

غ‎

ف‎

ق‎

ك‎

گ‎

نگ‎

ل‎

م‎

ن‎

و‎

ھ‎

ى‎

Latin

ain

Gh, Ghain

f

q

k

g

ng

l

m

n

w, o, u

h

y, e, i

Vowel marks used for the traditional Perso-Arabic Script used before the 1950s

Letter	ـَ‎	ـِ‎	ـُ‎
Name	zabar	zer	pesh
Letter	ا‎	ي‎	و‎
Name	alif	ye	wáo

Old and Modern Alphabet Spelling Comparisons

Old Perso-Arabic alphabet (Kona Yëziq) used before the 1950s	Modern Uyghur Arabic alphabet	Latin	Meaning
بغرا	بۇغرا	bughra	bull camel
ارسلان	ئارىسلان	arislan	lion
سلطان	سۇلتان	sultan	sultan
يوسف	يۈسۈپ	Yüsüp	Yusuf
حسن	ھەسەن	Hesen	Hassan
خلق	خەلق	xelq	people
كافیر	كاپىر	kapir	infidel
مسلمان	مۇسۇلمان	musulman	Muslim
منافق	مۇناپىق	munapiq	hypocrite
اسلام	ئىسلام	Islam	Islam
دين	دىن	din	religion
كاشقر	قەشقەر	Qeshqer	Kashgar
ختن	خوتەن	Xoten	Khotan
ينگي حصار	يېڭىسار	Yëngisar	Yangi Hissar
ساريق قول	سارىقول	Sariqol	Sarikol
قيرغيز	قىرغىز	Qirghiz	Kirghiz
دولان	دولان	Dolan	Dolan people
كوندوز	كۈندۈز	kündüz	day-time
ساريغ or ساريق	سېرىق	seriq	yellow
مارالباشي	مارالبېشى	Maralbëshi	Maralbexi County
لونگي	لۇنگى	Lungi	Lungi
آلتی شهر	ئالتە شەھەر	Alte sheher	Altishahr
آفاق خواجه	ئاپاق خوجا	Apaq Xoja	Afaq Khoja
پيچاق	پىچاق	pichaq	knife

References

---