The Yoghur Alphabet

Yoghur ^[1] is an alternate romanized spelling for Eastern Yugur (also spelled "Yogur," ISO 639-3: yuy), the Mongolic language of part of the Yugur people (裕固族) of Sunan Yugur Autonomous County, Gansu, China. Both spellings — Yogur and Yoghur — appear in academic literature and refer to the same language.

No — Yoghur (Eastern Yugur, Mongolic, ISO 639-3: yuy) ^[2] is a completely different language from Sarïgh Uyghur (Western Yugur, Turkic, ISO 639-3: ybe). Despite being spoken by the same Yugur ethnic group, Eastern Yugur is a Mongolic language and Western Yugur is a Turkic language — they are not mutually intelligible and come from different language families.

The spellings Yogur and Yoghur ^[1] reflect different romanization conventions used by different authors and institutions to transcribe the Yugur people's self-designation. Minzu University of China ^[1] typically uses "Yugur" or "Eastern Yugur" in official academic publications. The Endangered Languages Project ^[2] uses ISO 639-3 code yuy to unambiguously identify the Mongolic Eastern Yugur language regardless of spelling.

Yoghur / Eastern Yugur ^[1] is spoken in Sunan Yugur Autonomous County (肃南裕固族自治县), Zhangye prefecture, Gansu province, China. The area lies along the Hexi Corridor at the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. Minzu University of China ^[1] estimates Eastern Yugur speakers number in the low thousands, making Yoghur one of the smallest Mongolic language communities in existence. Both "Yogur" and "Yoghur" spellings appear in the academic literature describing this same geographic community.

Yes — Yoghur (Eastern Yugur) ^[2] is endangered, with Mandarin Chinese dominant in education and public life in Sunan. The Endangered Languages Project documents a decline in active Yoghur/Eastern Yugur speakers as younger Yugur people increasingly use Mandarin. The Endangered Languages Archive ^[3] holds field recordings of Eastern Yugur (documented under both "Yogur" and "Eastern Yugur" identifiers) as part of global endangered language preservation efforts.

Yoghur (Eastern Yugur) ^[1] belongs to the Mongolic branch of the Altaic-related language family, within the Southern Mongolic subgroup. It is closely related to Tu (Monguor) of Qinghai. Despite the similar name, the Turkic Western Yugur (Sarïgh Uyghur) belongs to a completely different language family. Minzu University of China ^[1] documents Eastern Yugur's Mongolic features in comparative studies with Tu and other Southern Mongolic languages.

Yoghur / Eastern Yugur ^[3] has no standardised writing system. In daily and official life, the Yugur community uses Mandarin Chinese in written form. For academic purposes, linguists apply a Latin romanization that uses special characters such as Ŋ, Ö, Š and Ü to represent sounds of the language — this is the alphabet presented on this page. ELAR ^[3] archives romanized transcriptions alongside audio recordings, ensuring the spoken language is preserved in a durable, searchable format regardless of whether the language is labelled "Yogur," "Yoghur" or "Eastern Yugur."

The Yugur people (裕固族) ^[2] are one of China's 55 officially recognised ethnic minorities, living primarily in Sunan Yugur Autonomous County, Gansu. They are notable for maintaining two unrelated languages — Eastern Yugur (Mongolic, also called Yogur or Yoghur) and Western Yugur (Turkic, also called Sarïgh Uyghur) — alongside Mandarin Chinese. The Yugur are believed to be descendants of Uyghurs who fled after the collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate in 840 CE and settled in the Hexi Corridor. Minzu University of China ^[1] studies both Yugur languages as part of its broader research on China's minority peoples.