Writing systems:
abjads |
alphabets |
syllabic alphabets |
syllabaries |
semanto-phonetic scripts
undeciphered scripts |
alternative scripts |
your con-scripts |
A-Z index |
Direction index
Writing systems:
abjads |
alphabets |
syllabic alphabets |
syllabaries |
semanto-phonetic scripts
undeciphered scripts |
alternative scripts |
your con-scripts |
A-Z index |
Direction index
Uyghur (Уйғур
/ئۇيغۇر)
Uyghur is a Turkic language with about 10 million speakers mainly in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, and also in Afghanistan, Australia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Turkey, the USA and Uzbekistan.
Uyghur was originally written with the Orkhon alphabet, a runiform script derived from or inspired by the Sogdian script, which was ultimately derived from the Aramaic script.
Between the 8th and the 16th century, Uyghur was written with an alphabet derived from Sogdian known as Old Uyghur. Unlike Sogdian, which was written from right to left in horizontal lines, the Old Uyghur alphabet was written from left to right in vertical columns, or in other words, it was a version of Sogdian rotated 90° to the left. Uyghur was also written with the Syriac alphabet, mostly in Christian documents.
From the the 16th century until the early 20th century, Uyghur was written with a version of the Arabic alphabet known as 'Chagatai'. During the 20th century a number of versions of the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets were adopted to write Uyghur in different Uyghur-speaking regions. However the Latin alphabet was unpopular and in 1987 the Arabic script was reinstated as the official script for Uyghur in China.
The name of this language is variously spelt Uigur, Uiguir, Uighuir, Uygur, Uighur, Uygur, Uyghur or in Chinese, 维吾尔语 (Wéiwú'ěryǔ). Uyghur is the preferred spelling in the Latin alphabet: this was confirmed at a conference of the Ethnic Languages and Script Committe of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region held in October 2006. For details (in Uyghur), see: http://www.xjyw.gov.cn/han/YWGZDT/wwesiyingwenzhuanxie.htm
Most of the Old Uyghur letters have different shapes depending on their position in a word. The initial shapes are used at the beginning of words, the medial shapes in the middle, and the final shapes at the ends of words.
Һемме адем занидинла еркин, иззет-һөрмет ве һоқуқта бапбаравер болуп туғулған. Улар еқилге ве вийдан'ға иге һемде бир-бириге қэриндашлиқ мунасивитиге хас роһ билен билен муамил қилиши кэрек.
Hemme adem zanidinla erkin, izzet-hörmet we hoquqta bapbarawer bolup tughulghan. Ular eqilge we wijdan'gha ige hemde bir-birige qérindashliq munasiwitige xas roh bilen muamile qilishi kérek.
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.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Hey, péqir uyghur, oyghan, uyqung yéter,
Sende mal yoq, emdi ketse jan kéter.
Bu ölümdin özengni qutqazmisang,
Ah, séning haling xeter, haling xeter.
Hey, poor Uyghur, wake up, you have slept long enough,
You have nothing, what is now at stake is your very life.
If you don't rescue yourself from this death,
Ah, your end will be looming, your end will be looming.
Part of ئويغان! /
Oyghan! (Wake up), a poem by Abduxaliq Uyghur
The complete poem with English and French translations can be found at: http://www.oyghan.com/oyghan.html
Uyghur language courses, dictionaries, etc
Details of the Uyghur language and alphabet (includes lessons and sound files)
http://www.uighurlanguage.com
Uygur (Uyghur) of Xinjiang China: culture, language, history and music
http://www.uygurworld.com
Online Uyghur dictionaries
http://www.uyghurdictionary.org
http://www.uighurlanguage.com
http://dict.yulghun.com
http://kenjisoft.homelinux.com/lughet/
Free Uyghur (Arabic) fonts
http://www.ukij.org/fonts/
Uyghur Unicode fonts and other information about Uyghur (in Uyghur)
http://www.oyghan.com/
Online Uyghur news and radio
http://www.rfa.org/uyghur/
http://www.trt.net.tr/international/news.aspx?Dil=uy
Forum for discussing technical matters concerning the Uyghur language,
like grammar, vocabulary, semantics or discourse analysis:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UyghurLanguage
Altay, Azerbaijani, Balkar, Bashkir, Chuvash, Crimean Tatar, Even, Evenki, Gagauz, Karakalpak, Kazak, Kumyk, Kyrghyz, Nanai, Tatar, Tatar, Turkish, Turkmen, Uyghur, Uzbek, Yakut
Other languages written with the: Arabic, Cyrillic and Latin alphabets
Armenian, Avestan, Bassa (Vah), Beitha Kukju, Coptic, Cyrillic, Elbsan, Etruscan, Fraser, Georgian (Asomtavruli & Nuskha-khucuri), Georgian (Mkhedruli), Glagolitic, Gothic, Greek, Hungarian Runes, Irish, Kayah Li, Korean, Latin, Lycian, Lydian, Manchu, Mongolian, N'Ko, Ogham, Old Church Slavonic, Oirat Clear Script, Old Italic, Old Permic, Orkhon, Pollard Miao, Runic, Santali, Somali, Sutton SignWriting, Tai Dam, Thaana, Uyghur
| DirectRooms provides discount hotels worldwide all with a low price guarantee |
Copyright 1998- Simon Ager