Western Yugur language

language
name=Western Yugur
nativename=yoğïr lar, yoğïr śoz
states=China
region=Gansu
speakers=4,600
familycolor=Altaic
fam1=Altaic [" [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90009] Ethnologue"] (controversial)
fam2=Turkic
fam3=Eastern Turkic
script=not written
iso2=tut
iso3=ybe

Western Yugur and Eastern Yugur are terms coined by Chinese linguists to distinguish between the Turkic and Mongolic Yugur language, both spoken within the Yugur nationality. The terms may also indicate the speakers of these languages. Traditionally, both languages are indicated by the term Yellow Uygur, from the autonym of the Yugur.

The Turkic speaking Yugur number about 4,600 and denote their own language by the terms "yoğïr lar" (Yugur speech) or "yoğïr śoz" (Yugur word).

Classification

Western Yugur shares a number of features, mainly archaisms, with several of the Northeastern Turkic languages, but it is not closer to any one of them in particular. Based on the sound change that turned Proto-Turkic *d > z, Western Yugur has been subgrouped with Khakas, Shor and Chulym.

Geographic distribution

Speakers of Western Yugur reside primarily in the western part of Gansu province's Sunan Yugur Autonomous County.

ounds

A special feature in Western Yugur is the occurrence of preaspiration, corresponding to the so-called pharyngealised or low vowels in Tuva and Tofa, and short vowels in Yakut and Turkmen. Examples of this phenomenon include "IPA|oʰtɯs" "thirty", "IPA|jaʰʂ" "good", and "IPA|iʰt" "meat".

The vowel harmonical system, typical of Turkic languages, has largely collapsed. Voice as a distinguishing feature in plosives and affricates was replaced by aspiration, as in Chinese.

Consonants

West Yugur has 28 native consonants and two more (indicated in paretheses) found only in loan words.

Vowels

Vocabulary

Western Yugur is the only Turkic language that preserved the anticipating counting system, known from Old Turkish.

For centuries, the Western Yugur language has been in contact with Mongolic languages, Tibetan, and Chinese, and as a result has adopted a large amount of loanwords from these languages, as well as grammatical features.

Grammar

Personal markers in nouns as well as in verbs were largely lost. In the verbal system, the notion of evidentiality has been grammaticalised, seemingly under the influence of Tibetan.

References

* Chén Zōngzhèn & Léi Xuǎnchūn. 1985. Xībù Yùgùyǔ Jiānzhì [Concise grammar of Western Yugur] . Peking.
* Léi Xuǎnchūn (proofread by Chén Zōngzhèn). 1992. Xībù Yùgù Hàn Cídiǎn [Western Yugur - Chinese Dictionary] . Chéngdu.
* Malov, S. E. 1957. Jazyk zheltykh ujgurov. Slovar' i grammatika. Alma Ata.
* Malov, S. E. 1967. Jazyk zheltykh ujgurov. Teksty i perevody. Moscow.
* Roos, Martina Erica. 2000. The Western Yugur (Yellow Yugur) Language: Grammar, Texts, Vocabulary. Diss. University of Leiden. Leiden.
* Tenishev, È. R. 1976. Stroj saryg-jugurskogo jazyka. Moscow.

External links

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ybe Ethnologue entry for West Yugur]
* [http://home.arcor.de/marcmarti/yugur/index.htm "Western Yugur Steppe" - A collection of literature and linguistic information]