Uyghur | |
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ئۇيغۇرچە / ئۇيغۇر تىلى | |
Uyghur written in Perso-Arabic script
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Pronunciation | [ʊjʁʊrˈtʃɛ], [ʊjˈʁʊr tili] |
Native to | Xinjiang, China |
Ethnicity | Uyghur |
Native speakers
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25 million (2016) |
Turkic
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Early forms
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Karakhanid
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Arabic (Uyghur alphabet) Latin script Cyrillic script |
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Official status | |
Official language in
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Regulated by | Working Committee of Ethnic Language and Writing of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | ug |
ISO 639-2 |
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ISO 639-3 |
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Glottolog | uigh1240 |
Geographical extent of Uyghur in China
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The Uyghur or Uighur (/ˈwiːɡər/)language (Uyghur: ئۇيغۇر تىلى, Уйғур тили, Uyghur tili, Uyƣur tili or ئۇيغۇرچە, Уйғурчә, Uygurche, Uyƣurqə), formerly known as Eastern Turki, is a Turkic language with 10 to 25 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China. Significant communities of Uyghur-speakers are located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and various other countries have Uyghur-speaking expatriate communities. Uyghur is an official language of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and is widely used in both social and official spheres, as well as in print, radio, and television, and is used as a lingua franca by other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.