Uyghur Arabic Alphabet

The Uyghur Arabic alphabet (Uyghur: 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 Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

It is one of several Uyghur alphabets and has been the official alphabet of the Uyghur language since 1982.

Uyghur alphabet
ئۇيغۇر يېزىقى
Uyghur Arabic Alphabet
Example of writing in the Uyghur alphabet: Uyghur
Script type
LanguagesUyghur, Sarikoli
Related scripts
Parent systems
Unicode
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.

The first Perso-Arabic derived alphabet for Uyghur was developed in the 10th century, when Islam was introduced there. The alphabet was used for writing the Chagatai language, the regional literary language, and is now known as the Chagatay alphabet (Uyghur: كونا يېزىق, romanized: Kona Yëziq, lit. 'old script'). It was used nearly exclusively up to the early 1920s. This alphabet 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. The pre-modification alphabet used Arabic diacritics (zabar, zer and pesh) to mark short vowels. Also, the ة‎ was used to represent a short [a] by some Turki writers.[full citation needed]

Alternative Uyghur scripts then began emerging and collectively largely displaced Chagatai. Between 1937 and 1954, the Perso-Arabic alphabet used to write Uyghur was modified by removing redundant letters and adding markings for vowels. The Uyghur Cyrillic alphabet was introduced around 1937, and the Latin-based Uyghur New Script in 1958. 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.

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
No. Letter IPA No. 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

Historical Spellings

Alphabetical order for the traditional Perso-Arabic Script (Kona Yëziq) used before the 1950s
Letter ا ب پ ت ث ج چ ح خ د ذ ر ز س ش ص
ULY a b p t s j ch h x d z r z s sh s
Letter ض ط ظ ع غ ف ق ک گ ݣ ل م ن و ه ى
ULY z t z gh f q k g ng l m n w, o, u h y, e, i
Uyghur Arabic Alphabet 
MS Windows Uyghur keyboard layout. Note that vowels are composed of pairs of Arabic letters, starting by an alef with hamza, that must be entered separately on this keyboard before the actual vowel. In fact, the keyboard is based on the older Latin alphabet used for Uyghur New Script and does not allow entering all vowels correctly for the current Arabic alphabet.
Vowel marks used for the traditional Perso-Arabic Script before the 1950s
Mark 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

Tags:

Uyghur Arabic Alphabet Current Official AlphabetUyghur Arabic Alphabet Spelling of SuffixesUyghur Arabic Alphabet Historical SpellingsUyghur Arabic Alphabet Old and Modern Alphabet Spelling ComparisonsUyghur Arabic AlphabetArabic alphabetRomanization of UyghurUyghur alphabetsUyghur languageUyghursXinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

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