The Yogur (Eastern Yugur) Alphabet

Q: What is the Yogur (Eastern Yugur) language?

Yogur (Eastern Yugur, ISO 639-3: yuy) [1] is a Mongolic language spoken by part of the Yugur people (裕固族) of Sunan Yugur Autonomous County, Gansu, China. It is closely related to Tu (Monguor) and the extinct Khitan language. The Yugur people also speak Western Yugur (Sarïgh Uyghur, a Turkic language), making their community unusual in maintaining two genetically unrelated languages.

Q: How is Eastern Yugur different from Western Yugur (Sarïgh Uyghur)?

Eastern Yugur (Yogur, ISO 639-3: yuy) [2] is a Mongolic language, while Western Yugur (Sarïgh Uyghur, ISO 639-3: ybe) is a Turkic language. Despite being spoken by the same Yugur ethnic group, they are from completely different language families and are not mutually intelligible. The Endangered Languages Project [2] documents both as endangered languages.

Q: Why is Yogur also called Sarï Uyghur?

The name Sarï Uyghur [1] (meaning "Yellow Uyghur" in Turkic) is one of several alternate names for both the Eastern and Western Yugur languages. In the Mongolic context, Sarï Uyghur refers to Eastern Yugur. The Yugur people's historical connection to the Uyghurs is reflected in these names. Minzu University of China [1] uses the term "Eastern Yugur" to distinguish the Mongolic language from its Turkic counterpart.

Q: Where is Eastern Yugur (Yogur) spoken?

Eastern Yugur (Yogur) [1] is spoken in Sunan Yugur Autonomous County (肃南裕固族自治县), Zhangye prefecture, Gansu province, China. The Yugur people occupy this narrow strip of the Hexi Corridor at the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, where they have historically lived as semi-nomadic pastoralists. Minzu University of China [1] estimates that Eastern Yugur speakers number in the low thousands, considerably fewer than the total Yugur ethnic population, making it one of the smallest living Mongolic language communities.

Q: Is Eastern Yugur (Yogur) an endangered language?

Yes — Eastern Yugur (Yogur) [2] is classified as endangered by the Endangered Languages Project. With active speakers estimated in the hundreds to low thousands, and Mandarin Chinese dominant in education and official life, language shift is ongoing. The Endangered Languages Archive [3] at SOAS University of London holds field recordings and transcriptions of Eastern Yugur to preserve the language and support any future community revitalisation efforts.

Q: What is the historical origin of the Yugur people?

The Yugur people [2] are believed to be descendants of Uyghurs who fled after the collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate in 840 CE, migrating south into the Gansu corridor. Over subsequent centuries, one portion of the community adopted a Mongolic language (Eastern Yugur/Yogur) through contact with Mongolic populations, while another retained a Turkic language (Western Yugur). This explains the remarkable situation of a single ethnic group maintaining two genetically unrelated languages. Minzu University of China [1] studies both Yugur languages as part of its minority language research.

Q: How is Eastern Yugur (Yogur) written?

Eastern Yugur (Yogur) [3] has no standardised writing system. Yugur people use Mandarin Chinese in written form for official and educational purposes. Academic linguists use a Latin romanization — the system shown on this page — to represent Eastern Yugur phonology in research grammars, dictionaries and fieldwork. ELAR [3] archives romanized transcriptions alongside audio recordings, creating a documented record of the spoken language. This romanization uses special characters such as Ŋ, Ö, Š and Ü to capture sounds absent from standard Latin.

Q: What language family does Eastern Yugur (Yogur) belong to?

Eastern Yugur (Yogur) [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 and to the extinct Khitan language of the Liao dynasty. Minzu University of China [1] documents Eastern Yugur's grammatical and phonological features in comparative studies with other Mongolic languages, tracing shared innovations that define the Southern Mongolic grouping.

Yogur (Eastern Yugur) Language at a Glance

Yogur (also Eastern Yugur, 东部裕固语, ISO 639-3: yuy) is the Mongolic language ^[1] of the Yugur people (裕固族) of Sunan Yugur Autonomous County, Gansu, China. It is distinct from the Western Yugur (Sarïgh Uyghur, ISO 639-3: ybe), which is a Turkic language spoken by the same ethnic group — making the Yugur people one of the rare communities bilingual in both a Mongolic and a Turkic language
Eastern Yugur belongs to the Mongolic branch ^[1] of the Altaic-related language family, closely related to the extinct Khitan language and to Tu (Monguor) of Qinghai. Despite the similar name, Eastern Yugur and Western Yugur are not mutually intelligible and come from completely different language families
Minzu University of China ^[1] (中央民族大学) conducts research on Eastern Yugur, documenting the language's phonology, grammar and vocabulary in the context of the wider Mongolic family. Its linguists use a Latin romanization system to represent Eastern Yugur in academic publications
The Endangered Languages Project ^[2] classifies Eastern Yugur as an endangered language, as the Yugur population has increasingly shifted to Mandarin Chinese. The Eastern Yugur-speaking community is numerically smaller than the Western Yugur (Turkic) speaking community, making its documentation especially urgent
The Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR) ^[3] at SOAS holds field documentation of Eastern Yugur, including recordings of native speakers and transcribed texts. These materials are essential for linguistic research on the Mongolic branch and for the Yugur community's language heritage
Eastern Yugur is also called Yoghur and Sarï Uyghur ^[1] in the Mongolic context — the name "Yellow Uyghur" referring to the Yugur people's historical self-identification. The Turkic Western Yugur bears a similar name (Sarïgh Uyghur), but these are distinct languages of the same people

Eastern Yugur (Yogur) Vowels

Eastern Yugur has 7 vowel phonemes ^[1]: A, E, I, O, Ö, U, Ü. The front rounded vowels Ö and Ü are characteristic of Mongolic languages, connecting Eastern Yugur to Mongolian and Tu (Monguor). Vowel harmony operates in native words.

Minzu University of China ^[1] documents the Eastern Yugur vowel system in comparative studies with other Southern Mongolic languages. ELAR ^[3] holds audio recordings that illustrate the Eastern Yugur vowels as spoken by native community members.

[AH]

[EH]

[EE]

[OH]

[EU]

[OO]

[UE]

Eastern Yugur (Yogur) Consonants

Eastern Yugur consonants include the velar nasal Ŋ, the velar fricative X and the postalveolar fricative Š ^[1] — all characteristic of Mongolic consonant inventories. Contact with Tibetan and Chinese has also influenced the Eastern Yugur consonant system.

Minzu University of China ^[1] compares Eastern Yugur consonants with those of Tu (Monguor) and the extinct Khitan language, tracing their shared Mongolic origin and subsequent divergence.

[B]

[TS]

[D]

[G]

[H]

[Y]

[K]

[L]

[M]

[N]

[NG]

[P]

[R]

[S]

[SH]

[T]

[W]

[KH]

[Y]

[Z]

[ZH]

[B]

as in "bat"

[TS]

as in "cats"

[D]

as in "dog"

[G]

as in "go"

[H]

as in "hat"

[Y]

as in "yes"

[K]

as in "key"

[L]

as in "lamp"

[M]

as in "man"

[N]

as in "not"

[NG]

velar nasal, as in "sing"

[P]

as in "pen"

[R]

as in "run"

[S]

as in "sun"

[SH]

as in "ship"

[T]

as in "top"

[W]

as in "wet"

[KH]

velar fricative

[Y]

palatal glide

[Z]

as in "zoo"

[ZH]

as in "measure"

[NG]

[ng]

[EU]

[eu]

[SH]

[sh]

[UE]

[ue]

[ZH]

[zh]

[NG]

velar nasal (uppercase)

[ng]

velar nasal (lowercase)

[EU]

front rounded mid vowel (uppercase)

[eu]

front rounded mid vowel (lowercase)

[SH]

sh sound (uppercase)

[sh]

sh sound (lowercase)

[UE]

front rounded high vowel (uppercase)

[ue]

front rounded high vowel (lowercase)

[ZH]

zh sound (uppercase)

[zh]

zh sound (lowercase)

[zero]

[one]

[two]

[three]

[four]

[five]

[six]

[seven]

[eight]

[nine]

Complete Eastern Yugur (Yogur) Romanization Alphabet

The complete academic Latin romanization alphabet for Eastern Yugur. This language is also known as Yoghur and Sarï Uyghur (Mongolic) — distinct from the Turkic Sarïgh Uyghur (Western Yugur) of the same Yugur people.

Minzu University of China ^[1], the Endangered Languages Project ^[2] and ELAR ^[3] together document and preserve the Eastern Yugur language as a unique Mongolic language of the Yugur people of Gansu, China.

[AH]

[B]

[TS]

[D]

[EH]

[G]

[H]

[EE]

[Y]

[K]

[L]

[M]

[N]

[NG]

[OH]

[EU]

[P]

[R]

[S]

[SH]

[T]

[OO]

[UE]

[W]

[KH]

[Y]

[Z]

[ZH]

Expand All Collapse All

What is the Yogur (Eastern Yugur) language?

How is Eastern Yugur different from Western Yugur (Sarïgh Uyghur)?

Why is Yogur also called Sarï Uyghur?

Where is Eastern Yugur (Yogur) spoken?

Is Eastern Yugur (Yogur) an endangered language?

What is the historical origin of the Yugur people?

How is Eastern Yugur (Yogur) written?

What language family does Eastern Yugur (Yogur) belong to?

References:

[1] Minzu University of China (中央民族大学), College of Ethnology and Sociology, Beijing. "Eastern Yugur Language Studies" — the university conducts research on Eastern Yugur (东部裕固语, ISO 639-3: yuy), a Mongolic language of the Yugur people (裕固族) of Sunan Yugur Autonomous County, Gansu, China, documenting its academic Latin romanization and its distinction from the Turkic Western Yugur. Retrieved from Minzu University of China
[2] Endangered Languages Project, Google & First Peoples Worldwide. "Eastern Yugur (Yogur) — Language Documentation" — the Project documents Eastern Yugur (Yogur, ISO 639-3: yuy), the Mongolic language of the Yugur people of Sunan, Gansu, China, classified as endangered; distinct from the Turkic Western Yugur (Sarïgh Uyghur) spoken by the same people. Retrieved from Endangered Languages Project
[3] Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR), SOAS University of London. "Eastern Yugur (Yogur) Language Documentation" — ELAR holds field documentation of Eastern Yugur, the Mongolic language of the Yugur people of Sunan Yugur Autonomous County, Gansu, China, providing recordings and transcriptions that illustrate the academic Latin romanization system used to represent this endangered Mongolic language. Retrieved from Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR)