The Western Yugur Language

 

Western Yugur is a Turkic language. The Turkic language family consists of some thirty languages, of which Turkish is the most well-known (other Turkic languages are e.g. Azeri, Turkmen, Tatar, Kazak, Kyrgyz, Uzbek and Uygur).

Western Yugur is spoken as a language of daily usage in Mínghua District. Children learn Western Yugur at home as their first language, and Chinese is learned as a secondary language in primary school.
      Chinese functions as a secondary language throughout the Yugur community, and its influence on Western Yugur is considerable. Western Yugur itself is an unwritten language, and Chinese functions as written medium.
      There are no compact language communities outside the Yugur County, and leaving the area implies that speaking Western Yugur as a language of daily usage is largely given up.

Read more on the following topics:

Linguistics

• The Turkic Language Family
• The Chinese Influence on the Western Yugur Language
• Index of Western Yugur Texts

Onomasticon

• Western Yugur Given Names
• Yugur Bone Clan Names
• Yugur Ethnonyms
• Yugur Otoq (Administrative Divisions)
• Yugur Toponyms

Word fields

• Western Yugur Kinship Terms
• Western Yugur Botanical Names
• The Traditional Calendar

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Back to the Western Yugur Steppe