The Sarï Uyghur (Mongolic) Alphabet

Sarï Uyghur ^[1] means "Yellow Uyghur" in Turkic, a name the Yugur people of Gansu, China used historically to identify themselves. The Yugur people are believed to be descendants of Uyghurs who fled after the collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate in 840 CE. The name "Sarï/Sarïgh Uyghur" is applied to both Eastern Yugur (Mongolic) and Western Yugur (Turkic) — two distinct languages spoken by the same ethnic group.

No — these are two different languages ^[2]. Sarï Uyghur (Mongolic) = Eastern Yugur (ISO 639-3: yuy), a Mongolic language. Sarïgh Uyghur (Turkic) = Western Yugur (ISO 639-3: ybe), a Turkic language. Both are spoken by the Yugur people (裕固族) of Sunan, Gansu, China, but they come from different language families and are not mutually intelligible.

Eastern Yugur / Sarï Uyghur (Mongolic) ^[1] is spoken in Sunan Yugur Autonomous County, Zhangye prefecture, Gansu province, China. Minzu University of China ^[1] documents the community as one of the smallest ethnic minority language communities in China, with Eastern Yugur speakers estimated to number in the hundreds to low thousands — making it an endangered language requiring active documentation.

Yes — Sarï Uyghur / Eastern Yugur ^[2] is classified as endangered by the Endangered Languages Project. Mandarin Chinese dominates education, administration and public life in Sunan Yugur Autonomous County, and the number of fluent Eastern Yugur speakers has declined sharply among younger generations. The Endangered Languages Archive ^[3] at SOAS University of London holds field recordings of the language under ISO 639-3 code yuy, preserving it for future linguistic research and potential community revitalisation.

Sarï Uyghur (Mongolic) / Eastern Yugur ^[1] belongs to the Mongolic branch of the Altaic-related language family, within the Southern Mongolic subgroup, closely related to Tu (Monguor) of Qinghai. Despite the "Uyghur" in its name, this language is Mongolic — not Turkic. The Turkic Western Yugur (Sarïgh Uyghur, ISO 639-3: ybe) shares a similar historical name but is a completely unrelated language. Minzu University of China ^[1] documents the Mongolic features of Eastern Yugur clearly in its published research.

Eastern Yugur / Sarï Uyghur (Mongolic) ^[3] has no standardised writing system. The Yugur community uses Mandarin Chinese in written form for official and educational purposes. Academic linguists represent the language using a Latin romanization that includes special characters such as Ŋ, Ö, Š and Ü — the same romanization shown on this page whether the language is called Eastern Yugur, Yogur, Yoghur or Sarï Uyghur (Mongolic). ELAR ^[3] archives romanized transcriptions alongside audio field recordings.

The Mongolic Eastern Yugur language is known by several names in academic literature ^[1]: Eastern Yugur (the standard modern academic term), Yogur and Yoghur (alternate romanizations), Sarï Uyghur (meaning "Yellow Uyghur," a historical ethnonym), and historically Eastern Yellow Uyghur. Minzu University of China ^[1] uses "Eastern Yugur" as the preferred official name, while the Endangered Languages Project ^[2] identifies it unambiguously by its ISO 639-3 code yuy.

The Yugur people speak both a Mongolic language (Eastern Yugur / Sarï Uyghur) and a Turkic language (Western Yugur / Sarïgh Uyghur) ^[2] because these two communities within the broader Yugur ethnic group descended from the same Uyghur ancestors but underwent different language shifts over the centuries following the collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate in 840 CE. One community adopted a Mongolic language through prolonged contact with Mongolic-speaking neighbours; the other retained a Turkic language. Minzu University of China ^[1] studies this unique sociolinguistic situation as a rare case of one ethnic group maintaining two genetically unrelated heritage languages.