The Yellow Uyghur Alphabet

Q: What is Yellow Uyghur and where is it spoken?

Yellow Uyghur is an endangered Kipchak Turkic language [1] spoken by approximately 4,600 Western Yugur people in Sunan Yugur Autonomous County , Gansu province, China. It is also called Sarïgh Uyghur and Yughur — all three names refer to the same language. The community lives in the Qilian Mountain grasslands along the historic Hexi Corridor Silk Road route. UNESCO classifies Yellow Uyghur as severely endangered — most fluent speakers are elderly, with younger generations adopting Mandarin Chinese as their primary language.

Q: Why is it called "Yellow Uyghur"?

"Yellow Uyghur" is the English translation of the Turkic name Sarïgh Uyghur [2] . The word "Sarïgh" means yellow in Turkic. The most widely accepted explanation is that it refers to the yellow robes worn by Tibetan Buddhist monks — reflecting the community's deep Tibetan Buddhist identity. The Western Yugur people converted to Tibetan Buddhism centuries ago and maintain Buddhist monasteries in Sunan today. The "yellow" designation distinguishes them from other groups. In Chinese classification, the community is called Yughur — another name for the same people and language.

Q: Is Yellow Uyghur related to Uyghur?

Yellow Uyghur and Uyghur share a historical common ancestor [1] — both communities descend from the ancient Uyghur Khaganate . However, after that empire collapsed in 840 CE, the languages diverged completely. Today they are not mutually intelligible . Uyghur is spoken by over 10 million people in Xinjiang using an Arabic-based script. Yellow Uyghur is spoken by fewer than 5,000 people in Gansu using a Latin script . Yellow Uyghur has absorbed extensive Mongolic and Tibetan loanwords , while modern Uyghur has been shaped by centuries of different cultural contact .

Q: What language family does Yellow Uyghur belong to?

Yellow Uyghur belongs to the Kipchak branch of the Turkic language family [2] . Its Kipchak relatives include Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tatar, and Bashkir. All Turkic languages share vowel harmony, agglutinative structure, and verb-final syntax . Yellow Uyghur preserves archaic Turkic features including the uvular consonant q and the velar fricative γ. It has also absorbed significant Mongolic and Tibetan vocabulary through centuries of contact. This makes Yellow Uyghur both genuinely Kipchak Turkic and distinctively shaped by its Central Asian multilingual environment.

Q: How many letters does the Yellow Uyghur alphabet have?

The Yellow Uyghur Latin alphabet has 32 letters : 8 vowels (A, E, I, O, U, Ö, Ü, Ə) and 24 consonants [1] . The 8 vowels reflect Turkic vowel harmony. Special characters include š (sh), ž (zh), č (ch), ŋ (eng), q (uvular stop), γ (velar fricative), and x (kh-sound). The schwa (Ə) represents the neutral mid-central vowel used in unstressed syllables. The uvular consonant Q and voiced velar fricative Γ are characteristic of Kipchak Turkic phonology, linking Yellow Uyghur to Kazakh and Kyrgyz as members of the same Turkic language branch .

Q: What is the status of Yellow Uyghur today?

Yellow Uyghur is severely endangered [2] with approximately 4,600 speakers — the majority elderly. Younger generations increasingly use Mandarin Chinese for education, employment, and social interaction, while Yellow Uyghur is used mainly in the home and in community cultural contexts. Linguists and cultural organisations are working to document and preserve the language. The Sunan Yugur Autonomous County supports some cultural programming for the Western Yugur community. However, without intergenerational transmission to younger speakers, Yellow Uyghur faces the risk of language loss within a generation or two .

Yellow Uyghur Alphabet at a Glance

Yellow Uyghur uses 32 Latin-based letters: 8 vowels and 24 consonants — the writing system of the Western Yugur Turkic language of Gansu, China
"Yellow Uyghur" is the English translation of Sarigh Uyghur — approximately 4,600 speakers in Sunan Yugur Autonomous County, Gansu, China ^[1]
A Kipchak Turkic language also known as Yughur and Sarigh Uyghur — entirely distinct from the Uyghur language of Xinjiang despite sharing the Uyghur name ^[2]
The 8 vowels include front rounded ö and ü, and the schwa ə — a vowel inventory shaped by the vowel harmony rules of Turkic languages
Special consonant letters include š (sh-sound), ž (zh-sound), č (ch-sound), ŋ (ng-sound), γ (velar fricative), and q (uvular stop)
Yellow Uyghur is classified as severely endangered — with most fluent speakers elderly, the language faces pressure from Mandarin Chinese
The name "Yellow" in Yellow Uyghur derives from Sarigh, the Turkic word for yellow, referencing the yellow robes of Tibetan Buddhist monks

Yellow Uyghur Vowels

The 8 vowel letters of the Yellow Uyghur Latin alphabet — A, E, I, O, U, Ö, Ü, Ə. The same 8 vowels documented across all three names for this language: Yellow Uyghur, Sarïgh Uyghur, and Yughur.

The front rounded vowels ö and ü and the schwa ə are characteristic of Turkic vowel systems. Vowel harmony — the governing rule that front and back vowels generally cannot coexist within a single Yellow Uyghur word — is a fundamental structural feature inherited from Proto-Turkic.

[a]

[e]

[i]

[o]

[u]

[oe]

[ue]

[uh]

[a]

Vowel A — open central vowel, as in "father". Foundational vowel of the Yughur sound system.

[e]

Vowel E — mid front unrounded vowel, as in "bed". Common in Yughur vocabulary.

[i]

Vowel I — high front unrounded vowel, as in "see". A frequent vowel in Yughur.

[o]

Vowel O — mid back rounded vowel, as in "more". Used across Yughur vocabulary.

[u]

Vowel U — high back rounded vowel, as in "moon". A back vowel in Yughur.

[oe]

Vowel Ö — front rounded mid vowel, as in German "schön". A distinctive Turkic vowel in Yughur.

[ue]

Vowel Ü — front rounded high vowel, as in German "über". A characteristic vowel of Turkic languages.

[uh]

Vowel Ə (schwa) — neutral mid-central vowel, as in the unstressed "a" in "about". Used in Yughur unstressed syllables.

Yellow Uyghur Consonants

The 24 consonant letters of the Yellow Uyghur Latin alphabet — B, P, M, F, D, T, N, L, R, S, Z, Š, Ž, Č, J, G, K, Q, Γ, X, H, Ŋ, W, Y.

The caron letters (Š, Ž, Č) represent postalveolar consonants; the eng (Ŋ) marks the ng-sound; the uvular Q and voiced velar fricative Γ are distinctively Turkic. These consonants link Yellow Uyghur to its Kipchak cousins Kazakh and Kyrgyz while reflecting the archaic phonology of the ancient Uyghur Khaganate.

[b]

[p]

[m]

[f]

[d]

[t]

[n]

[l]

[r]

[s]

[z]

[sh]

[zh]

[ch]

[j]

[g]

[k]

[q]

[gh]

[kh]

[h]

[ng]

[w]

[y]

[b]

Consonant B — voiced bilabial stop, as in "boy". A common consonant in Yughur.

[p]

Consonant P — voiceless bilabial stop, as in "pen". Used across Yughur vocabulary.

[m]

Consonant M — bilabial nasal, as in "man". A nasal consonant frequent in Yughur.

[f]

Consonant F — voiceless labiodental fricative, as in "fat". Present in Yughur, often in loanwords.

[d]

Consonant D — voiced alveolar stop, as in "door". A voiced counterpart of T in Yughur.

[t]

Consonant T — voiceless alveolar stop, as in "top". A common stop consonant in Yughur.

[n]

Consonant N — alveolar nasal, as in "no". A very frequent consonant in Yughur.

[l]

Consonant L — lateral approximant, as in "land". Common across Yughur word positions.

[r]

Consonant R — alveolar trill or tap, similar to Spanish "r". A rhotic consonant in Yughur.

[s]

Consonant S — voiceless alveolar fricative, as in "sun". A sibilant used throughout Yughur.

[z]

Consonant Z — voiced alveolar fricative, as in "zoo". The voiced counterpart of S in Yughur.

[sh]

Consonant Š — voiceless postalveolar fricative, the sh-sound as in "she". Written with a caron over S in Yughur.

[zh]

Consonant Ž — voiced postalveolar fricative, the zh-sound as in "measure". The voiced counterpart of Š in Yughur.

[ch]

Consonant Č — voiceless postalveolar affricate, the ch-sound as in "church". Written with a caron over C in Yughur.

[j]

Consonant J — voiced affricate, as in "judge". Used in native and borrowed vocabulary in Yughur.

[g]

Consonant G — voiced velar stop, as in "go". A velar consonant in Yughur.

[k]

Consonant K — voiceless velar stop, as in "key". A frequent consonant in Yughur Turkic vocabulary.

[q]

Consonant Q — voiceless uvular stop, pronounced further back than K. Characteristic of Turkic languages including Yughur.

[gh]

Consonant Γ (gamma) — voiced velar or uvular fricative, a deep throaty gh-sound. A distinctive consonant in Yughur inherited from Old Turkic.

[kh]

Consonant X — voiceless velar fricative, the kh-sound similar to Scottish "loch". Used in Yughur native vocabulary.

[h]

Consonant H — voiceless glottal fricative, as in "hat". A fricative used in Yughur.

[ng]

Consonant Ŋ (eng) — velar nasal, the ng-sound as in "sing". Written with the eng letter in Yughur orthography.

[w]

Consonant W — labial-velar approximant, as in "water". A semivowel in Yughur.

[y]

Consonant Y — palatal approximant, as in "yes". A semivowel acting as consonant in Yughur.

Yellow Uyghur Special Characters

The 10 special characters of Yellow Uyghur — 3 special vowels (Ö, Ü, Ə) and 7 special consonants (Š, Ž, Č, Ŋ, Γ, Q, X) that extend the standard Latin alphabet to represent Turkic sounds.

"Yellow Uyghur" is the English name for Sarïgh Uyghur / Yughur — all three names refer to the same 32-letter Latin alphabet with these 10 special characters. The caron letters, the gamma (Γ), and the eng (Ŋ) are hallmarks of Turkic linguistic documentation.

[oe]

[ue]

[uh]

[sh]

[zh]

[ch]

[ng]

[gh]

[q]

[kh]

[oe]

Special Vowel Ö — front rounded mid vowel, as in German "schön". Unique to Yughur among basic Latin scripts; essential for Turkic vowel harmony.

[ue]

Special Vowel Ü — front rounded high vowel, as in German "über". A distinctive Turkic vowel marking front-rounded harmony in Yughur words.

[uh]

Special Vowel Ə (schwa) — mid-central neutral vowel, as in the unstressed "a" in "about". Unique to Yughur among Turkic Latin scripts.

[sh]

Special Consonant Š — postalveolar fricative (sh-sound), as in "she". Written with a caron (háček) over S; a key caron letter in Yughur.

[zh]

Special Consonant Ž — voiced postalveolar fricative (zh-sound), as in "measure". Caron letter; the voiced counterpart of Š in Yughur.

[ch]

Special Consonant Č — postalveolar affricate (ch-sound), as in "church". Caron letter replacing the digraph "ch" in Yughur orthography.

[ng]

Special Consonant Ŋ (eng) — velar nasal (ng-sound), as in "sing". The eng letter represents a sound that English spells with two letters "ng".

[gh]

Special Consonant Γ (gamma) — voiced velar or uvular fricative (deep gh-sound). An ancient Turkic consonant preserved in Yughur, inherited from Old Turkic.

[q]

Special Consonant Q — voiceless uvular stop, articulated further back than K. A characteristic Turkic consonant in Yughur that distinguishes back-vowel harmony words.

[kh]

Special Consonant X — voiceless velar fricative (kh-sound), similar to Scottish "loch" or German "Bach". Used in native Yughur vocabulary.

Yellow Uyghur Digits

Yellow Uyghur uses Arabic numerals (0–9) in everyday writing, with Kipchak Turkic number words: nöl (0), bir (1), eki (2), üč (3), tört (4), beš (5), altı (6), yeti (7), sekiz (8), toğuz (9).

The "Yellow" in Yellow Uyghur refers to the golden-yellow robes of Tibetan Buddhist monks — a cultural connection that shaped the Western Yugur identity for centuries. The same Turkic number words appear across Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and other Kipchak languages.

[noel]

[beer]

[ek-ee]

[uch]

[tort]

[besh]

[al-tuh]

[yet-ee]

[seh-keez]

[toh-ghuz]

[noel]

Zero — Nöl (0). Yughur uses Arabic numerals 0–9 in everyday writing alongside the Latin script.

[beer]

One — Bir (1). The Turkic word for one, shared with Turkish, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz: bir.

[ek-ee]

Two — Eki (2). The Kipchak Turkic word for two; related to Kazakh eki and Kyrgyz eki.

[uch]

Three — Üč (3). Turkic word for three, using the special letter Č (ch-sound): üč.

[tort]

Four — Tört (4). The Kipchak Turkic word for four, shared with Kazakh and Kyrgyz: tört.

[besh]

Five — Beš (5). Turkic word for five, using the special letter Š (sh-sound): beš.

[al-tuh]

Six — Altı (6). The Turkic word for six, broadly shared across the Turkic language family: altı.

[yet-ee]

Seven — Yeti (7). Kipchak Turkic word for seven; related to Turkish yedi and Kazakh jeti.

[seh-keez]

Eight — Sekiz (8). The Turkic word for eight, preserved across Kipchak and Oghuz branches: sekiz.

[toh-ghuz]

Nine — Toğuz (9). Kipchak Turkic word for nine; related to Kazakh toğız and Kyrgyz toğuz.

Complete Yellow Uyghur Alphabet

A complete view of all 32 Yellow Uyghur letters — 8 vowels and 24 consonants — in alphabetical order. Yellow Uyghur, Sarïgh Uyghur, and Yughur all use the same 32-letter Latin alphabet.

The 10 special letters (Ö, Ü, Ə, Š, Ž, Č, Ŋ, Γ, Q, X) make the Yellow Uyghur (Yughur) alphabet distinctive within the Latin script family. These characters encode the ancient Turkic phonological system preserved by the Western Yugur people of Sunan, Gansu, China.

[a]

[b]

[ch]

[d]

[e]

[uh]

[f]

[g]

[gh]

[h]

[i]

[j]

[k]

[l]

[m]

[n]

[ng]

[o]

[oe]

[p]

[q]

[r]

[s]

[sh]

[t]

[u]

[ue]

[w]

[kh]

[y]

[z]

[zh]

Expand All Collapse All

What is Yellow Uyghur and where is it spoken?

Why is it called "Yellow Uyghur"?

Is Yellow Uyghur related to Uyghur?

What language family does Yellow Uyghur belong to?

How many letters does the Yellow Uyghur alphabet have?

What is the status of Yellow Uyghur today?

References:

[1] Glottolog 5.x. "Western Yugur [west2403]" — Turkic > Siberian Turkic classification; an endangered language of Sunan Yugur Autonomous County, Gansu, China. Retrieved from Glottolog: Western Yugur
[2] SIL International. "Western Yugur [ybe]" — ISO 639-3 Registration Authority entry for Yughur (Sarïgh Uyghur / Yellow Uyghur), an endangered Turkic language of Sunan Yugur Autonomous County, Gansu, China. Retrieved from SIL ISO 639-3: Western Yugur