Learning to Read Uyghur - Part 2
 |
| Uyghur Alphabet |
Here is part 2 of this learning to read series. In part 1 we learned about how the Uyghur alphabet works. In this lesson we'll begin learning different letters of the alphabet.
Please take note that in this series I am using the Uyghur Latin Alphabet (ULY) to romanize the Uyghur script to help with pronunciation. But there are limitations to the ULY. If you happen to refer to other Uyghur resources, there might be a few letters that have some differences. For example the letter (ئې) in Uyghur is romanized in ULY as 'é', but in some textbooks they might be romanized as 'ë'. The long story short is that the sooner you learn to read Uyghur the sooner you don't have to rely on the romanized version.
Also note in this guide I am introducing letters based on what I think is easier to pronounce (and not necessarily alphabetically).
a - Here is the first letter we will learn. Again remember that the letter will look different depending on if it occurs in the beginning, middle, or end of a word. This letter has the 'a' sound as in father or the 'o' sound as in bother. Here are the different ways the letter looks:
ئا ـا ـئا ا
t - This letter has the 't' sound as in top. Here are the different ways the letter looks:
ت تـ ـتـ ـت
Try practice reading the following:
ئات - at
ئاتا - ata
تا - ta
تاتا - tata
*Notice the different forms the letters take.
Let's go ahead and learn two more letters.
n - This letter has the 'n' sound as in nose. Here are the different ways the letter looks:
ن نـ ـنـ ـن
m - This letter has the 'm' sound as in man or moon. Here are different ways the letters looks:
م مـ ـمـ ـم
Now let's do some more reading practice:
ئان - an
ئام - am
ئانا - ana
نان - nan
مام - mam
مات - mat
مانتا - manta
Were you able to read those?
Although this is just practice for reading these letters, some of these are actual words in Uyghur:
ئات - at = horse
ئاتا - ata = father (used more in Southern Xinjiang)
ئانا - ana = mother (informal, or used more in Southern Xinjiang)
نان - nan = a type of flatbread
مانتا - manta = Uyghur dumplings
*And if you're interested in learning how to make Uyghur manta check this YouTube video.
Continue to Part 3
