Uyghur grammar
Uyghur is a Turkic language spoken mostly in the west of China.
Uyghur exhibits the agglutination characteristic to the Turkic family and its basic word order is subject-object-verb. It lacks grammatical gender and does not use articles. The language's inventory of 24 consonants and eight vowels features both vowel harmony and consonant harmony. Nouns are marked for ten cases, in general with suffixes and are additionally inflected for number.
This article uses both the Arabic script (official for the language) and Latin script for Uyghur words.
General characteristics
[edit]The typical word order in Uyghur is subject–object–verb, as in the sentence "men uyghurche oquymen", lit., "I Uyghur study" Compare this to English, where the sentence would be expressed with subject–verb–object order: "I study Uyghur".
Uyghur is an agglutinative language, meaning that potentially many suffixes (denoting person, number, case, mood, etc.) are usually all attached to one word stem. For example "to your house," the main word, house, occurs first, and the modifying elements are attached directly to the right and written all in one word:
ئۆيىڭىزگە
öy-ingiz-ge
home-2sg.POSS-DAT
"to your home"
ئىشلەۋاتقان
ishle-wat-qan
work-CONT-INDEF.PAST
"having worked"
Nouns are not distinguished for gender (e.g. male, female)[1], unlike in such languages as French, Spanish and German. Nouns are usually pluralized (with the suffix +lAr) except when preceded by a numeral: compare "atlar" ("horses") and "ikki at" (two horses). Instead of using articles (like English "a", "the"), Uyghur uses demonstrative pronouns ("this", "that") and no marker or the numeral one (bir) to indicate definiteness and indefiniteness, respectively, "this cat/the cat" vs. بىر مۈشۈك(bir müshük) "a/one cat" or مۈشۈك(müshük) "cat/cats."
Uyghur verbs take, usually at least for tense (present, past) and person (I, you, s/he, they, etc.), for example
ئوقۇيمەن
oqu-y-men
read-PRES.FUT-1sg
"I read/study."
Uyghur verbs can also take other suffixes to mark voice (causative, passive), aspect (continuous), mood (e.g. ability), as well as suffixes that change verbs into nouns—sometimes many all together:
ئوقۇۋاتقانىمدا
oqu-wat-qan-im-da
read-CONT-PCP.PST-POSS.1sg-LOC
"When I was studying"
Negation usually also appears as a verb suffix, e.g.
ئوقۇمايمەن
oqu-ma-y-men
read-NEG-PRES.FUT-1sg
"I don't read."
Uyghur has vowel and consonant harmony, a system where vowels or consonants in a word come to match or become similar to each other, especially as suffixes and other elements are attached. Many but not all words and grammatical elements in Uyghur behave according to these harmonic principles. If a suffix is written with one or more capital letters (e.g. +DA, +lAr, +GA, etc.), these capital letters indicate that these sounds are harmonic, that is, variable: D= d/t, G= gh/q/g/k; K= k/q; A= a/e; I= i/u/ü or ø/i/u/ü.
Sound system
[edit]There are 32 basic sounds in Modern Uyghur.
Consonants
[edit]Uyghur has 24 consonants (listed here according to the Arabic-script alphabet): b, p, t, j, ch, x, d, r, z, zh, s, sh, gh, f, q, k, g, ng, l, m, n, x, h, w, y (and 25 consonants if the glottal stop ‘ is counted). Most are not pronounced much differently than their English counterparts (e.g. Uyghur j in baj "tax" is pronounced like j in judge; Uyghur ch in üch "three" is pronounced like ch in itch; Uyghur h in he’e "yes" is pronounced like h in hello), except that l has palatal or velar variants. A few sounds are not found in English: q gh and x. The voiceless uvular stop q [q] is pronounced like a back k, with the back of the tongue touching the soft palate, as in aq "white," Qeshqer "Kashgar." The sound gh [ʁ] ~ [ɣ] is typically a voiced fricative version of q, also pronounced at the very back of the mouth and sounds like French or German r, as in Roissy or Ruhr. (Near front vowels, gh is often pronounced more front, like French Rue or German Rübe.) Finally, the Uyghur voiceless velar or uvular fricative x [x] ~ [χ] is pronounced like ch in Scottish loch, or further back in the mouth, like a back version of German ach.
The four sounds k, g, q and gh are subject to consonant harmony: (1) within a stem (main word), they potentially determine its backness and (2) within a variable suffix, they conform to the backness and voicing of the preceding stem. Consonant harmony is discussed below.
The ژ zh [ʒ] (sounds like English garage), is only for foreign and onomatopoeic words like zhurnal ‘magazine, journal’ and pizh-pizh "sizzling." The letter ج j (normally pronounced [dʒ] as in baj ‘tax’) is in southern Xinjiang often pronounced [ʒ]. Initial y [j] can also be pronounced [ʒ] before i, e.g. yilan [ʒilan] ‘snake’.
In Uyghur words of Turkic origin, sh is rare, except as a suffix; similarly, since f was borrowed into Uyghur from Arabic and Persian, it is often replaced by p, especially in colloquial and rural usage: fakultët~pakultët ‘academic department’.
Vowels
[edit]Uyghur has eight vowels. Vowels are rounded (o, u, ü, ö) and unrounded (a, i, e, ë); this distinction is sometimes termed labial vs. non-labial; they are front (ü, ö, e, ë) or back (u, o, a). These distinctions are critical for harmonic purposes, since Uyghur words are subject to vowel harmony. The orthographic vowel i represents both a front [i] and a back [ɨ] and is not subject to vowel harmony.
Stress
[edit]Uyghur accent (stress or high pitch, which this article will for convenience call stress) is not well understood, yet some general remarks can be made to aid language learning. In Uyghur, stress is mostly determined by the length of syllables. This means that a syllable which is closed (i.e., ends in consonants [CVC or CVCC]) tends to attract stress, while a syllable which is open (i.e. ends in a vowel [CV]) does not. A rule of thumb is: stress the last syllable of the stem, e.g. ayagh "foot," Turpan'gha "to Turfan."
Words without closed syllables are likely to have the final syllable stressed.
Certain suffixes attract and repel stress.
Attract stress: -GAn, -Gu, (A)m, -(I)wat.
Repel stress (to the preceding vowel): -(I)wer.
Harmonic Rules
[edit]Word-internal harmony is relatively weak in Uyghur, but when suffixes are added to a word stem, certain suffix vowels and consonants harmonize with those of the stem. There are three variable vowels in Uyghur, A (a/e), I (i/u/ü), and U (u/ü). There are three harmonically variable consonant types: G (k/g/q/gh), K (k/q) and D (d/t). Uyghur's harmony system has three relevant components: voicing, backness and roundness harmony. Note that -AK will always be either -ek or -aq, and -IK can only be ik, iq, uq, or ük.
| Preceding
vowel |
A | I | U | G |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ö | e | ü | ü | k/g |
| ü | ||||
| e | i | u | ||
| ë | ||||
| i | ||||
| a | q/gh | |||
| a | ||||
| o | u | |||
| u |
Remember that i represents both a front [i] and a back [ɨ], and is a neutral vowel and thus this can affect vowel harmony in suffixes. For instance:
ئىشىككە
ishik-ke
door-DAT
"to the door"
Takes the front versions of archiphonemes G and A, as the word is solely made up of [i]s, but:
كاتىپقا
katip-qa
secretary-DAT
"to the secretary"
Takes the back versions, as the word is phonetically [kɑtɨpqɑ], with the /i/ turning to the back vowel [ɨ], due to the /ɑ/.
A-raising
[edit]When a stem ends in unstressed a or e (as part of the archiphoneme A), and it is followed by a consonant-initial suffix that contains a vowel, this a/e is usually raised to i. When a monosyllabic stem ends in a/e, and is followed by a consonant, its a/e is usually raised to ë. This is reflected in the orthography. Other vowels do not change.[2]
For example:
چوكا،
choka,
chopstick,
چوكىلار
choki-lar
chopsticks
Here the -a of /ˈtʃo.kɑ/ is raised to /i/ to make the plural, /ˈtʃo.ki.lɑr/.
ئاكا،
a.k.a.
brother,
ئاكام
aka-m
brother.POSS-1sg
As the suffix here, -m, does not have a vowel, the final a is not raised. Here is an example of a monosyllabic stem changingː
ماڭ،
mang,
walk,
مېڭىۋاتىدۇ
mëng-iwat-idu
walk-CONT-3sg
walk, s/he is walking
While the stem /mɑŋ/ is not an open syllable, as Uyghur syllable structure is onset-mandatory, when the stem takes the suffix -(I)wat- the /ŋ/ of the stem breaks off to form a syllable with the /i/ of the suffix, like soː /me.ŋi.wɑ.ti.du/ (here the [me] is not stressed). Where the a or e is stressed, the vowel does not raise, for instance with:
ئاۋاز،
awaz,
voice,
ئاۋازىم
awazim
voice-POSS.1sg
voice, my voice
As the syllable is stressed, it does not raise: /ʔɑ.ˈwɑz/, /ʔɑ.ˈwɑ.zim/. Words like this with a stressed final syllable are known as strong nouns and add a y or r between their stem and first/second person personal suffixes. Monosyllabic words ending in a rounded verb always add y.
Names, unfamiliar place names, and non-nativised loan words do not change. Loan words are frequent sources of stressed open final syllables, such as the Arabic loan /dun.ˈjɑ/, from Arabic: دُنْيَا, romanized: dunyā.
Sound changes not reflected in writing
[edit]A-raising also takes place across word boundaries, but this is not reflected in writing, see:
لاتا
lata
cloth
خەج
xej
shoe
Which is pronounced /ˈlɑ.ti xɛdʒ/.
Some loan words ending in p and b change that p/b to w when a vowel-initial suffix is added to them. This is not reflected in any orthography other than Cyrillic.
The table below shows some other sound changes in words that are not reflected in writing.
| Orthographic | Pronounced | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| -nb- | mb | |
| -lm- | mm | |
| -ln- | ll | |
| -ts- | ss | |
| -zs- | ||
| -ghq- | when the dative -GA is attached to a stem ending in -gh it is orthographically written as -ghqA and pronounced as -qqa | |
| -gh | q | only word-final |
| -q | x | only in some words |
| VkV | g | |
| VqV | gh | |
| ch(t/k) | sh | |
| -b | p | only word-final |
| Vr(C/.) | /Vː/ | this lengthens the preceding vowel |
| i(t/k) | /ɪ̥ʃ/(t/k) | |
| ë in the initial syllable | i | |
| o in a syllable before u | u | |
| ö in a syllable before ü | ü |
Pronouns
[edit]Personal pronouns
[edit]In Uyghur there is one set of personal pronouns used for the first- and third person, while there are three in the second person. The use of the three sets in the second person depends on the formality and politeness.[3]
The personal pronouns are inflected for number and case. Follow the links of each of the personal pronouns to see them inflected.
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| First person | مەن men |
بىز biz | |
| Second person | Informal | سەن sen |
سەنلەر senler |
| Polite | سىز siz |
سىلەر siler | |
| Respectful | سىلى sili |
- | |
| Third person | ئۇ u |
ئۇلار ular | |
The second person personal pronoun mostly used among people is the polite سىز, siz, while the informal سەن, sen is used between very close friends or when parents are addressing their children. The informal سەن, sen is also used when the speaker has a higher social rank than the addressed person.
The respectful سىلى, sili is used for respectfully addressing elders, grandparents or other notable persons of a community. Royalty is also addressed using سىلى, sili and sometimes even customers in stores.[3]
The declension of the pronouns is outlined in the following chart, with some exhibiting irregularities (in bold):[4]
| Number | Singular | Plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Person | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | ||
| Inf. | Polite | Resp. | Polite | |||||
| nominative | مەن men |
سەن sen |
سىز siz |
سىلى sili |
ئۇ u |
بىز biz |
سىلەر siler |
ئۇلار ular |
| genitive | مېنىڭ mëning |
سېنىڭ sëning |
سىزنىڭ sizning |
سىلىنىڭ silining |
ئۇنىڭ uning |
بىزنىڭ bizning |
سىلەرنىڭ silerning |
ئۇلارنىڭ ularning |
| dative | ماڭا ma'nga |
ساڭا sa'nga |
سىزگە sizge |
سىلىگە silige |
ئۇنىڭغا uninggha |
بىزگە bizge |
سىلەرگە silerge |
ئۇلارغا ulargha |
| accusative | مېنى mëni |
سېنى sëni |
سىزنى sizni |
سىلىنى silini |
ئۇنى uni |
بىزنى bizni |
سىلەرنى silerni |
ئۇلارنى ularni |
| locative | مەندە mende |
سەندە sende |
سىزدە sizde |
سىلىدە silide |
ئۇنىڭدا uningda |
بىزدە bizde |
سىلەردە silerde |
ئۇلاردا ularda |
| ablative | مەندىن mendin |
سەندىن sendin |
سىزدىن sizdin |
سىلىدىن silidin |
ئۇنڭندىن uningdin |
بىزدىن bizdin |
سىلەردىن silerdin |
ئۇلاردىن ulardin |
| locative-
qualitative |
مەندىكى mendiki |
سەندىكى sendiki |
سىزدىكى sizdiki |
سىلىدىكى silidiki |
ئۇنىڭدىكى uningdiki |
بىزدىكى bizdiki |
سىلەردىكى silerdiki |
ئۇلاردىكى ulardiki |
| limitative | مەنگىچە men'giche |
سەنگىچە sen'giche |
سىزگىچە sizgiche |
سىلىگىچە siligiche |
ئۇنىڭگىچە uninggiche |
بىزگىچە bizgiche |
سىلەرگىچە silergiche |
ئۇلارگىچە ulargiche |
| similitude | مەندەك mendek |
سەندەك sendek |
سىزدەك sizdek |
سىلىدەك silidek |
ئۇنىڭداك uningdak |
بىزدەك bizdek |
سىلەردەك silerdek |
ئۇلاردەك ulardek |
| equivalence | مەنچىلىك menchilik |
سەنچىلىك senchilik |
سىزچىلىك sizchilik |
سىلىچىلىك silichilik |
ئۇنىڭچىلىك uningchilik |
بىزچىلىك bizchilik |
سىلەرچىلىك silerchilik |
ئۇلارچىلىك ularchilik |
Demonstrative pronouns
[edit]Uyghur has several demonstrative pronouns with some of them being used for emphasis or as intensifiers, while others have less specific uses. Common for all of the demonstrative pronouns is that their use depends on the distance between the speaker and the thing or person to which is referred.[5][6]
The demonstrative pronouns are inflected for number and case, but must take the genitive case suffix -ning first before other cases (other than in the genitive and accusative case). In the table below, the demonstrative pronouns can be seen, although only in the singular. Follow the links of each of the demonstrative pronouns to see them inflected.
| Meaning | Form | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | Specific | Familiar | Exact Location | |
| this | بۇ bu |
ماۋۇ mawu[a][b] |
مۇشۇ mushu[a] |
مەشە meshe |
| that | ئۇ u |
ئاۋۇ awu[c][b] |
ئاشۇ ashu[c] |
ئەشە eshe |
| that
(distant) |
شۇ shu |
ئەشۇ eshu |
– | – |
The most common demonstrative pronouns are بۇ, bu, ئۇ, u and شۇ, shu, the first being translated as this and the remaining two as that. The first is used when referring to an object or person which is visible and close to the speaker, the second is used when referring to an object or person which is away from the speaker and the third is used when referring to a previously mentioned object or person which is not particular close to the speaker in an affirmative statement.
The two first-mentioned demonstrative persons each have an intensified derived form ending in ۋۇ, -wu, ماۋۇ, mawu and ئاۋۇ, awu, respectively. These are used when it is necessary to make it clear that the object or person the demonstrative pronoun is referring to really is the object or person which the speaker means. The two first-mentioned demonstrative persons both also have another derived form, ending in شۇ, -shu, مۇشۇ, mushu and ئاشۇ, ashu, respectively. These are often used for confirming something the speaker is already familiar with.[5]
The examples below illustrate the use of بۇ, bu and its derived forms.
بۇ
bu
قەلەم
qelem
"This pen"
ماۋۇ
mawu
قەلەم
qelem
"This pen (and not any other pen)"
مۇشۇ
mushu
قەلەم
qelem
"This pen (which you are familiar with)"
Interrogative Pronouns
[edit]These are divided into four categories based on the part of speech they represent. They are the most regular of the pronouns.
Noun Interrogative Pronouns
[edit]These pronouns work like nouns, and take number and case suffixes. Ne, nëme, and qeyer also take personal possessive suffixes.
نېمىدىن
nëmi-din
what-ABL
قورقىسىز؟
qorq-isiz?
fear-PRES.2PL
What are you afraid of?
نەرىڭ
ner-ing
where-POSS.2SG
ئاغرىدۇ؟
aghr-idu?
hurt-PRES.3SG
Where hurts? What part of you hurts?
| Uyghur | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| كىم kim |
who | does not take possessives |
| نە ne |
where
(classical: what) |
same as qeyer
when inflecting according to possessive suffixes, r is added |
| نېمە
nëme |
what | |
| نە ۋاق(ىت)
ne waq(it) |
when, what time | |
| نە كەم
ne kem |
when, what time | same as ne waq |
| قەيەر
qeyer |
where | used with the locative |
| قاياق
qayaq |
where from/to | used with the dative or ablative
does not take possessives |
Adjective Interrogative Pronouns
[edit]These pronouns directly depend on nouns and function as qualifiers.
| Uyghur | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| قانداق qandaq |
what kind, how | |
| قايسى qaysi |
which | |
| نېمانداق
nëmandaq |
why... to what a degree
(so many etc) |
Numeral Interrogative Pronouns
[edit]These concern questions related to numeral quantities. They can take the place of measure words and have number suffixes attached to them to clarify their meaning further.
قانچە
qanche
how.many
ئادەم
adem
person
كەلدى؟
kel-di?
come-PST.3pl
How many people came?
قانچەيلەن
qanche-ylen
how.many-person.suffix
كەلدى؟
kel-di?
come-PST.3PL
How many people came?
| Uyghur | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| قانچە qanche |
how many
(quantity) |
|
| قانچىلىك qanchilik |
Adverb Interrogative Pronouns
[edit]These act like adverbs in the sentence, and cannot take case suffixes or postpositions, other than qachaq.
| Uyghur | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| قاچاق qachaq |
when | |
| قانداقسىگە qandaqsige |
on what basis
how (rhetorical) |
|
| نېچۈك
nëchük |
why (literary) | |
| قانداقلارچە
qandaqlarche |
however, how | |
| نېمانچە
nëmanche |
why... to what a degree
(so many etc) |
|
| نېمىدېگەن
nëmidëken |
exclamatory
intensifier |
|
| نە قەدەر
ne qeder |
||
| نە قاتارلىك
ne qatarlik |
Special Interrogative Pronouns
[edit]| Uyghur | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| نېمىسى nëmisi |
what part | |
| قېنى qëni |
where (is) | functions only as a predicate |
Nouns
[edit]Nouns in Uyghur have no grammatical gender or definite marking, although the number 'one' bir can be used to mark indefiniteness. Plurals are marked by -lAr, with the vowel following the rules of vowel harmony.[7] The plural is not used after numbers.
Cases
[edit]Uyghur has ten cases, all of which except the nominative are marked by suffixation after possible plural or possessive suffixes.[8][4] Case always comes after plurals and possessive suffixes. Note that the locative-qualitative, limitative, equivalence, and similitude cases are sometimes not considered to be cases.
| Case | Suffix | kün "day"
+V+F |
hawa "air"
+V-F |
chëlek "bucket"
-V+F |
kitab "book"
-V-F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | -∅ | كۈن kün |
ھاۋا hawa |
چېلەك chëlek |