The Uigur Alphabet

Uigur and Uyghur are different romanisations of the same language ^[2]. Both share the same ISO 639-3 code: ug. The spelling "Uyghur" is now standard in most English academic, governmental, and media contexts. "Uigur" is an older romanisation derived from Chinese transliteration conventions (维吾尔, Wéiwú'ěr) and remains used in some historical and academic sources. A third variant — "Uighur" — is also encountered.

All three spellings refer to the same Karluk Turkic language of approximately 10–15 million speakers in Xinjiang, China: the same 32-letter Perso-Arabic alphabet (UPA), the same grammar, the same vowel harmony system, the same cultural heritage of the Uyghur people of Central Asia.

The Old Uyghur script ^[1] — the predecessor of the current Perso-Arabic script — was one of the most influential writing systems in Asian history. Developed in the 8th century CE during the Uyghur Khaganate, the Old Uyghur alphabet (derived from Sogdian) became the direct ancestor of the Mongolian, Oirat, Buryat, and Manchu scripts — writing systems that spread across an enormous swath of Inner Asia.

When Genghis Khan adopted the Old Uyghur script for writing Mongolian in the early 13th century, he chose it partly because the Uyghur scribal class were the most literate administrators available. The Mongolian-style vertical script — still used in Inner Mongolia today — descends directly from the Old Uyghur alphabet, giving the Uyghur people a profound legacy in the writing systems of Asia.

The modern Uyghur/Uigur Perso-Arabic Alphabet (UPA) has 32 letters ^[2]: 7 vowel letters and 25 consonant letters. Every vowel is written as a mandatory, full letter — unlike Arabic, which normally omits short vowels. This makes the UPA a true alphabet, not an abjad, giving it complete phonemic representation.

The 7 vowels are: ئا (a), ئە (e), ئى (i), ئو (o), ئۇ (u), ئۆ (ö), ئۈ (ü). The front rounded vowels ئۆ and ئۈ are unique to the UPA among Arabic-script alphabets and encode the vowel harmony system fundamental to Turkic phonology.

Yes — Uyghur/Uigur is written right to left ^[2], following the direction of the Perso-Arabic script on which the Uyghur alphabet is based. Text flows from the right margin to the left, and letters connect to each other in the same cursive style as Arabic and Persian. Books open from right to left, and websites use RTL (right-to-left) layout for Uyghur content.

Some letter forms change depending on their position (initial, medial, final, or isolated) — a feature shared with Arabic and Persian. The initial vowel carrier ئ appears before every word-initial vowel, which is a unique characteristic of the Uyghur alphabet not required in Arabic or Persian script, ensuring that vowel-initial words are always clearly distinguished in writing.

Uyghur/Uigur belongs to the Karluk branch of the Turkic language family ^[1], also called Eastern Karluk Turkic. Its closest relative is Uzbek. Both share Chagatai Turkic as their classical literary ancestor. The Karluk branch is distinct from the Oghuz branch (Turkish, Azerbaijani) and the Kipchak branch (Kazakh, Kyrgyz).

All Turkic languages, including Uyghur/Uigur, share three defining features: agglutinative morphology (suffixes stacked onto roots), vowel harmony (vowels within a word match in class), and SOV word order (subject before object before verb). Uyghur has approximately 10–15 million speakers, making it the most widely spoken Karluk Turkic language in the world.

The majority of Uyghur/Uigur speakers live in Xinjiang (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region), China ^[1]. Significant diaspora communities are found in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. Smaller communities exist in Germany, Australia, Sweden, and North America.

Kazakhstan has one of the largest Uyghur diaspora populations — over 200,000 speakers concentrated in Almaty and the Ili Valley near the Chinese border. Diaspora Uyghur communities are active in maintaining the language through schools, media, and cultural organisations, using both the Perso-Arabic and Latin-based Uyghur alphabets depending on country and context.

Uigur/Uyghur and Uzbek are closely related but distinct languages ^[2], both belonging to the Karluk branch of Turkic. They share the same classical ancestor (Chagatai Turkic), similar core vocabulary (ikkı/ikki = two, yettä/yetti = seven), and the same agglutinative grammar. However, they are not mutually intelligible in natural speech.

The most visible difference is script: Uyghur uses a right-to-left Perso-Arabic alphabet with 32 letters, while Uzbek uses a left-to-right Latin alphabet with 29 letters. Phonologically, Uyghur maintains uvular consonants (q, gh) and gemination more consistently than Uzbek. Both languages trace their classical literary heritage to Alisher Navoi's Chagatai poetry of the 15th century.

Estimates range from 10 to 15 million speakers ^[1], making Uyghur/Uigur one of the larger Turkic languages in the world. The vast majority live in Xinjiang, China. The Uyghur people number approximately 12 million in Xinjiang according to Chinese census figures, though diaspora estimates place the global total higher.

Uyghur/Uigur is an official regional language of Xinjiang and is taught in schools alongside Mandarin. However, the balance of language use in education and public life has shifted significantly in recent decades. Diaspora communities in Central Asia, Turkey, Europe, and North America actively maintain and transmit the language outside China.