View source for Uyghurs

===Language===
{{Main|Uyghur language}}

[[File:Map of language areas of Xinjiang.png|thumb|upright=1.15|Map of language families in Xinjiang]]

The ancient people of the Tarim Basin originally spoke different languages, such as [[Tocharian languages|Tocharian]], [[Saka language|Saka]] (Khotanese), and [[Gāndhārī language|Gandhari]]. The Turkic people who moved into the region in the 9th century brought with them their languages, which slowly supplanted the original tongues of the local inhabitants. In the 11th century, [[Mahmud al-Kashgari]] noted that the Uyghurs (of Qocho) spoke a pure Turkic language, but they also still spoke another language among themselves and had two different scripts. He also noted that the people of Khotan did not know Turkic well and had their own language and script ([[Saka language|Khotanese]]).<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SAX5ohFkcVgC&pg=PA72 |title=slamic Central Asia: An Anthology of Historical Sources |author1=Scott Cameron Levi |author2=Ron Sela |page=72 |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-253-35385-6 |access-date=19 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101193741/https://books.google.com/books?id=SAX5ohFkcVgC&pg=PA72 |archive-date=1 January 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> Writers of the Karakhanid period, Al-Kashgari and [[Yusuf Balasagun]], referred to their Turkic language as ''Khāqāniyya'' (meaning royal) or the "language of Kashgar" or simply Turkic.<ref>{{cite book|author3-link=Robert Dankoff|author1=Mehmet Fuat Köprülü|author2=Gary Leiser|author3=Robert Dankoff|title=Early Mystics in Turkish Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_v6IWkCLnEwC&pg=PA158|year=2006|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-36686-1|pages=158–|access-date=19 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101193741/https://books.google.com/books?id=_v6IWkCLnEwC&pg=PA158|archive-date=1 January 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Edmund Herzig|title=The Age of the Seljuqs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ML2bBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA23|date=30 November 2014|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-78076-947-9|pages=23–|access-date=22 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101193741/https://books.google.com/books?id=ML2bBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA23|archive-date=1 January 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

The modern Uyghur language is classified under the [[Karluk languages|Karluk]] branch of the [[Turkic languages|Turkic language family]]. It is closely related to [[Äynu language|Äynu]], [[Lop language|Lop]], [[Ili Turki language|Ili Turki]] and [[Chagatay language|Chagatay]] (the East Karluk languages) and slightly less closely to [[Uzbek language|Uzbek]] (which is West Karluk). The Uyghur language is an [[agglutinative language]] and has a [[subject-object-verb]] word order. It has [[vowel harmony]] like other Turkic languages and has noun and verb [[Grammatical case|cases]] but lacks distinction of gender forms.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.indiana.edu/~celcar/pamphlets/Uyghur.pdf |title=Uyghur |work=Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region |publisher=Indiana University |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150607223811/http://www.indiana.edu/~celcar/pamphlets/uyghur.pdf |archive-date=7 June 2015 }}</ref>

Modern Uyghurs have adopted a number of scripts for their language. The [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic script]], known as the [[Chagatay alphabet]], was adopted along with Islam. This alphabet is known as Kona Yëziq (old script). Political changes in the 20th century led to numerous reforms of the scripts, for example the [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]]-based [[Uyghur Cyrillic alphabet]], a Latin [[Uyghur New Script]] and later a reformed [[Uyghur Arabic alphabet]], which represents all vowels, unlike Kona Yëziq. A new Latin version, the [[Uyghur Latin alphabet]], was also devised in the 21st century.

In the 1990s, many Uyghurs in parts of Xinjiang could not speak [[Mandarin Chinese]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/china00pete/page/304|title=China the Silk Routes|author=Peter Neville-Hadley|series=[[Cadogan Guides]]|publisher=[[Globe Pequot Press]]|page=304|year=1997|isbn=978-1-86011-052-8|quote=Travelling east from Khotan{...}Many Uighurs speak no Chinese at all, and most hotels are even less likely to have English speakers than those elsewhere in China.}}</ref>