The Uyghur Latin alphabet (Uyghur: ئۇيغۇر لاتىن يېزىقى, romanized: Uyghur Latin Yëziqi, ULY) is an auxiliary alphabet for the Uyghur language based on the Latin script. Uyghur is primarily written in Uyghur Arabic alphabet and sometimes in Uyghur Cyrillic alphabet.
In 2023, the alphabet was agreed as the BGN/PCGN romanization system for Uyghur.
Hotan (Uyghur: خوتەن, romanized: Xoten; Chinese: 和田; pinyin: Hétián) is a major oasis town in southwestern Xinjiang, an autonomous region in Northwestern China. The city proper of Hotan broke off from the larger Hotan County to become an administrative area in its own right in August 1984. It is the seat of Hotan Prefecture.
With a population of 408,900 (2018 census), Hotan is situated in the Tarim Basin some 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) southwest of the regional capital, Ürümqi. It lies just north of the Kunlun Mountains, which are crossed by the Sanju, Hindutash and Ilchi passes. The town, located southeast of Yarkant County and populated almost exclusively by Uyghurs, is a minor agricultural center. An important station on the southern branch of the historic Silk Road, Hotan has always depended on two strong rivers, the Karakash River and the White Jade River, to provide the water needed to survive on the southwestern edge of the vast Taklamakan Desert. The White Jade River still provides water and irrigation for the town and oasis.
Kashgar (Uyghur: قەشقەر, romanized: Qeshqer) or Kashi (Chinese: 喀什; pinyin: Kāshí) is a city in the Tarim Basin region of southern Xinjiang, China. It is one of the westernmost cities of China, located near the country's border with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. For over 2,000 years, Kashgar has been a strategically important oasis on the Silk Road linking China with Central Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and has a population of 711,300 people (as of 2019). Kashgar's urban area covers 15 km (5.8 sq mi), although its administrative area extends over 555 km (214 sq mi).
At the convergence point of widely varying cultures and empires, Kashgar has been under the rule of the Chinese, Turkic, Mongol and Tibetan empires. The city has also been the site of a number of battles between various groups of people on the steppes.
The Karakash River (Chinese: 喀拉喀什河; pinyin: Kālākāshí Hé; Uyghur: قاراقاش دەرياسى, romanized: Qaraqash Deryasi, cyrillized: Қарақаш Дәряси) or the Black Jade River is a river in the Xinjiang autonomous region of the People's Republic of China that originates in Aksai Chin. It passes through the historical settlement of Shahidulla and passes by the city of Hotan to flow northeast in the Tarim Basin. It merges with the Yurungkash River, the combined river taking the name Hotan River and flowing into the Tarim River.
Wensu County (Chinese: 温宿县), also known as Onsu County (Uyghur: ئونسۇ ناھىيىسى, romanized: Onsu Nahiyisi), is a county in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China, under the administration of Aksu Prefecture, bordering Kyrgyzstan's Issyk-Kul Region to the northwest. It has an area of 14,309 km (5,525 sq mi).
The Uyghur Arabic alphabet (Uyghur: ئۇيغۇر ئەرەب يېزىقى, romanized: Uyghur Ereb Yëziqi, abbr. UEY) is a version of the Arabic alphabet used for writing the Uyghur language, primarily by Uyghurs living in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. It is one of several Uyghur alphabets and has been the official alphabet of the Uyghur language since 1982.
The first Perso-Arabic derived alphabet for Uyghur was developed in the 10th century, when Islam was introduced there. The alphabet was used for writing the Chagatai language, the regional literary language, and is now known as the Chagatay alphabet (Uyghur: كونا يېزىق, romanized: Kona Yëziq, lit. 'old script'). It was used nearly exclusively up to the early 1920s. This alphabet did not represent Uyghur vowels and according to Robert Barkley Shaw, spelling was irregular and long vowel letters were frequently written for short vowels since most Turki speakers were unsure of the difference between long and short vowels. The pre-modification alphabet used Arabic diacritics (zabar, zer and pesh) to mark short vowels. Also, the ة was used to represent a short [a] by some Turki writers.
Shanshan (Chinese: 鄯善; pinyin: Shànshàn; Uyghur: پىچان, romanized: Pichan, lit. 'Piqan') was a kingdom located at the north-eastern end of the Taklamakan Desert near the great, but now mostly dry, salt lake known as Lop Nur.
The kingdom was originally an independent city-state, known in local Gandhari documents as Kroraïna (Krorayina, Kröran) – which is commonly rendered in Chinese as Loulan. The Western Han dynasty took direct control of the kingdom some time after 77 BCE, and it was later known in Chinese as Shanshan. The archaeologist J. P. Mallory has suggested that the name Shanshan may be derived from the name of another city in the area, Cherchen (later known in Chinese as Qiemo). A local variety of Gandhari was used in the kingdom for administrative, literary, and epigraphic purposes. Scholars such as Thomas Burrow have suggested the local population might have spoke a hypothetical Tocharian C, as evidenced by the loanwords in those Gandhari documents.
Karasahr or Karashar (Uyghur: قاراشەھەر, romanized: Qarasheher), which was originally known in the Tocharian languages as Ārśi (or Arshi), Qarašähär, or Agni or the Chinese derivative Yanqi (Chinese: 焉耆; pinyin: Yānqí; Wade–Giles: Yen-ch'i), is an ancient town on the Silk Road and the capital of Yanqi Hui Autonomous County in the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang.
As of the 2000 census it had a population of 29,000, growing to 31,773 people in 2006; 16,032 persons of which were Han, 7781 people Hui, 7154 people Uyghur, 628 Mongol and 178 other ethnicities and an agricultural population of 1078 people.