The Uyghur Arabic alphabet (, abbr. UEY) is a version of the Arabic script 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.XUAR Government Document No. XH-1982-283
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 (). 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 (, and ) to mark short vowels. Also, the was used to represent a short [a] by some Turki writers.
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. Instead, it spells Arabic and Persian loanwords — such as Islamic religious words — based on their Uyghur pronunciation and not on their original Arabic or Persian spelling.
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 AlphabetNo.LetterIPANo.LetterIPA1172183194205216227238249251026112712281329~14301531~1632
Note: also represents but it is usually ignored at the beginning of words. It still reads in the middle, such as hour.
In printed texts, the letter may also take the shape of with a single dot, that is . This letter was used in the Uyghur keyboard layout for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, but Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 changed the mapping to .. In the digital sphere, is prevalent, and some fonts specialized for Uyghur map the shape of to .
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 not written joined (separated by a zero width non-joiner, in Unicode terms) while in modern Uyghur the root+suffix would be joined. +Chagatai/Uyghur suffix structurePart of speechIPAUEYUEY ExampleTraditional SpellingTraditional ExamplePlural Suffix + = + = + = + =
Historical spellings
+ Alphabetical order for the traditional Perso-Arabic Script (Kona Yëziq) used before the 1950s Letter ULY a b p t s j ch h x d z r z s sh s Letter ULY z t z gh f q k g ng l m n w, o, u h y, e, i
+ Vowel marks used for the traditional Perso-Arabic Script before the 1950s Mark Name zabar zer pesh Letter Name alif ye wáo
Old and modern spelling comparisons
Old Perso-Arabic alphabet (Kona Yëziq)used before the 1950s Modern Uyghur Arabic alphabet Latin Meaning bughra bull camel arislan lion sultan sultan Yüsüp Yusuf Hesen Hassan xelq people kapir infidel musulman Muslim munapiq hypocrite Islam Islam din religion Qeshqer Kashgar Xoten Khotan Yëngisar Yangi Hissar Sariqol Sarikol Qirghiz Kirghiz Dolan Dolan people kündüz day-time or seriq yellow Maralbëshi Maralbexi County Lungi Lungi Alte sheher Altishahr Apaq Xoja Afaq Khoja pichaq knife
References