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.^[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.

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.^[2] The pre-modification alphabet used Arabic diacritics (zabar, zer and pesh) to mark short vowels.^[3] Also, the ة‎ was used to represent a short [a] by some Turki writers.^{[4][5][6][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.^[7][8] The Uyghur Cyrillic alphabet was introduced around 1937, and the Latin-based Uyghur New Script in 1958.^[9] 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.^{[10][11][12][13]}

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

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
كافر	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

1. XUAR Government Document No. XH-1982-283
2. Shaw, Robert Berkley (1878). A Sketch of the Turki Language as Spoken in Eastern Turkistan (Kàshgar and Yarkand). Calcutta: Printed by J. W. Thomas, at the Baptist Mission Press. p. 13 – via Google Books.
3. Shaw, Robert Barkley (1878). A Sketch of the Turki Language as Spoken in Eastern Turkistan (Kàshgar and Yarkand). Calcutta: Printed by J. W. Thomas, at the Baptist Mission Press. p. 15 – via Google Books.
4. Shaw, Robert Berkley (1878). A Sketch of the Turki Language as Spoken in Eastern Turkistan (Kàshgar and Yarkand). Calcutta: Printed by J. W. Thomas, at the Baptist Mission Press – via Google Books.
5. Shaw, Robert Barkley (1880). A Sketch of the Turki Language as Spoken in Eastern Turkistan (Kàshgar and Yarkand): Part II: Vocabulary, Turki-English. Calcutta: Printed by J. W. Thomas, at the Baptist Mission Press – via Google Books.
6. "Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal". 1878 – via Google Books.
7. Zhou, Minglang (2003). Multilingualism in China: The Politics of Writing Reforms for Minority Languages, 1949–2002. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. p. 166. ISBN 3-11-017896-6 – via Google Books.
8. Johanson, Éva Ágnes Csató; Johanson, Lars, eds. (2003). The Turkic Languages. Taylor & Francis. p. 387. ISBN 978-0-203-06610-2 – via Google Books.
9. Benson, Linda; Svanberg, Ingvar (1998). China's Last Nomads: The History and Culture of China's Kazaks. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe. p. 174. ISBN 1-56324-781-X – via Google Books.
10. Dillon, Michael (1999). China's Muslim Hui Community: Migration, Settlement and Sects. Surrey: Curzon. p. 159. ISBN 0-7007-1026-4 – via Google Books.
11. Starr, S. Frederick, ed. (2004). Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland. London: M. E. Sharpe. p. 195. ISBN 0-7656-1317-4 – via Google Books.
12. Dillon, Michael (2004). Xinjiang: China's Muslim Far Northwest. London: RoutledgeCurzon. p. 27. ISBN 0-203-16664-7 – via Google Books.
13. Millward, James A. (2007). Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 236. ISBN 978-0-231-13924-3 – via Google Books.