Uyghur grammar

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:

Nouns are not distinguished for gender (e.g. male, female), 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

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:

Negation usually also appears as a verb suffix, e.g.

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.

There are 32 basic sounds in Modern Uyghur.

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’.

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.

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.

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.

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:

Takes the front versions of archiphonemes G and A, as the word is solely made up of [i]s, but:

Takes the back versions, as the word is phonetically [kɑtɨpqɑ], with the /i/ turning to the back vowel [ɨ], due to the /ɑ/.

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.^[1]

For example:

Here the -a of /ˈtʃo.kɑ/ is raised to /i/ to make the plural, /ˈtʃo.ki.lɑr/.

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

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:

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.

A-raising also takes place across word boundaries, but this is not reflected in writing, see:

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.

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.^[6] The plural is not used after numbers.

Uyghur has ten cases, all of which except the nominative are marked by suffixation after possible plural or possessive suffixes.^[7][3] 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.

Note that as the example word, كىتاب/kitab, has its final consonant devoiced to phonetically be /kiˈtɑp/, it uses the unvoiced variants of suffixes.

The nominative indicates the subject; that which is predicated in the sentence. It can also indicate the target of address, and names for qualified objects. For example:

It can also function as a predicate, for example:

The genitive indicates the thing that possesses, and is primarily a qualifier but can function as a predicate, for example:

The genitive can also be pronominalised, allowing the noun it indicates as possessed to be dropped. The use of the suffix -ki after it for this is optional, unless the word it is qualifying is not in the nominative case. For example:

Not using -ki here is fine as Kasim's dictionary would also be in the nominative, but:

As here Tursun's article would also take the accusative case, -ki must be used. Some nouns in the nominative act like genitive nouns, and require the nouns they qualify to take a possessive suffix. These are known as nouns in the nature of the possessive case, and produce closely bound noun phrases that are usually used in the place of one word. Qualifiers (i.e. adjectives) that come before the phrases qualify the entire phrase, not just the head word. For example:

Dative nouns are usually subordinate to verbs or verbal phrases and act as adverbial modifiers. They can also be adjectival modifiers. For example, the dative case can indicate the target of an action (usually preceded by "to" in English):

It can also indicate:

• The object of actions expressed by certain intransitive verbs
• The subject of verbs in the causative voice formed from transitive verbs
• The purpose of an action
• The instrument or price of certain actions

Accusative-case nouns are subordinate to transitive verbs and indicate the object of their action, for example:

Sometimes nouns in the nominative case are the subject of transitive verbs, these are known as nouns in the nature of the accusative case and generalise the nature of the object, making its relation with the verb closer, and creating an object-verb phrase used in place of a simple verb. For example:

These nouns function as qualifiers (for mostly verbs, but sometimes adjectives) and signify the action's temporal or physical location. They indicate:

• The place where an action occurs.
• The time at which an action occurs, or the time for which it lasts.
• The circumstances or atmosphere in which an action occurs.
• The instrument of an action.

When subordinate to an adjective, they indicate the place or field of an activity.

When used as a predicate, they indicate the location or source of the subject.

Ablative nouns are subordinate to verbs and sometimes adjectives and adverbs, and they mostly act as adverbial modifiers. It is usually associated with the pronoun "from" in English

When acting as an adverbial modifier, they can indicate:

• The point of departure/separation of the subject/recipient, or the object that is passed through.
• Things which are mentally distanced from the subject of an action.
• The source of an action.
• The starting point of a limit connected with an action.
• The material/components of the subject/recipient.
• A generality/group from which one or some are related to the action.
• The field covered by the action.
• The reason for the action (cause).

Ablative nouns subordinate to adjectives indicate unequal comparison. Some adjectives also sometimes require the ablative case for noun modifiers, for example:

These nouns function as qualifiers (for almost any part of speech) and signify the word's temporal or physical location. The difference between this and the locative case is that the qualifier is not specific, but general/universal. For example:

When context is clear, it is possible to drop the noun that the locative-qualitative case noun is qualifying and use this non-dropped noun pronominally, which also takes the cases of the dropped noun.

These nouns are subordinate to verbs and function as adverbial modifiers, and sometimes as the predicate.

When they modify verbs, they indicate the final point reached as a limit of an action, for example:

When a limitative case noun acts as a predicate, it indicates the final limit of the subject.

Nouns in the similitude case can act as qualifiers or adverbial modifiers, in both cases they liken the quality/action to their base noun. For example:

Nouns in the equivalence case can act as qualifiers or adverbial modifiers, in both cases they liken the quality/action to their base noun, with respect to the level/amount/measurement. For example:

Uyghur, like Uzbek, has possessive suffixes that indicate person.^[3]

Monosyllabic nouns ending in rounded vowels (i.e. su) will add a y before first and second person suffixes (i.e. suyum, suyingiz but susi).

Uyghur has a wide variety of affixes which form words from others. This section will go over noun-formation affixes.

Adjectives in Uyghur can often be used as adverbial modifiers, and indicate the quality of an object or action.

Most adjectives can have their degree modified, and these are known as "gradable" adjectives. However, it is impossible to strengthen or weaken some adjectives (i.e. ئەركەك, erkek, 'male'), which are known as "non-gradable" adjectives.

There are a variety of ways to indicate degree when it comes to gradable adjectives.

This is known as "the repeated form" and emphasises that the quality is unique to a large number of things of the same type, or that the action possessing the quality indicated by the adjective is repeated many times.

Some adjectives can be directly turned into nouns, for example:

They can also function as nouns when the noun is dropped, indicating objects with the quality they have.

Like most Turkic languages, copulas are important to verbs, and some are words that have become fixed in a single form ("incomplete copulas", some of which are suffixes), although "complete copulas", which are entirely separate words, do exist.

In the present tense, it is not essential to use a copula, for example:

These copulas can differ between regions, the forms given in the table are those used in Northern Xinjiang.

The negative copula, emes, does not inflect for person or tense. For example: