Uyghur Tilliq
23-05-05, 11:48
Bu xet towendiki tor betidin kochuruldi:
http://www.meshrep.com/wforum/viewtopic.php?t=4924&sid=e9568e070f8385189f4388fa6a27a3b0
I haven't weighed in to date on the Uighur versus Uyghur issue,
partially since I've considered it a question of fairly minor
importance, and partially since I have no strong preference myself
either way. Since the question doesn't seem to have died down,
however, I've thought about it a bit and have decided to send
along my
own proverbial two cents' worth, in the hopes that I won't
make any
permanent enemies thereby.
Although normally somewhat of a traditionalist and thus fairly
sympathetic to Michael's position, I also find the spelling
"Uighur"
to be particularly unattractive, and even un-English, regardless of
its historical pedigree, and believe as well that the "Uyghur"
rendering is in fact supplanting it fairly rapidly in common usage
among scholars and linguists working in the field. No matter how
well-established "Uighur" may be in certain writing on the
Central
Asian area, it seems to me that it has not really penetrated the
active or passive vocabulary of most well-read native speakers of
English, unless they be specialists on the area.
Looking at recent publications on the language per se, I see that
Reinhard Hahn entitled his book "Spoken Uyghur", while Michael
Friedrich entitled his (in German) "Uyghurisch". Henry
Schwarz also
used "Uyghur" for his dictionary. The relevant sections in
the
compendium "The Turkic Languages" (again written by Hahn) uses
"Uyghur", while Anne Lee's translation of the Hamit Tomur
grammar is
entitled "Modern Uyghur Grammar". Indiana University's
Center for
Languages of the Central Asian Region uses "Uyghur", Radio
Free Asia
uses "Uyghur", the Uyghur Dictionary Projects uses
"Uyghur", etc.
There thus seems to be a trend in the recent Western writing on the
language and people itself toward "Uyghur", although the
traditional
spelling of "Uighur" obviously continues to be widely used as
well.
Given that most of the Turkic languages and peoples are not that
well known to most English speakers, it strikes me as only natural
that, at least in some cases, there may be in time a trend away from
the more traditional spellings to ones that more closely resemble
their actual native pronunciations. This is especially the case when
sovereign states weigh in to have the English versions of their names
changed. "Tartar" gave way some time ago to "Tatar",
"Turkoman/Turcoman" has largely given way to
"Turkmen", "Kirghiz" to
"Kyrgyz" (no matter how strange the latter looks to English
speakers),
etc. "Sinkiang" is, I believe, the traditional spelling for
the
geographical region inhabited by the Uyghurs/Uighurs, but given the
ascendancy of Pinyin these days, I suspect that few of us are still
using that earlier spelling, and that it will eventually take on the
patina and associations of an earlier age, just as "Hindoo"
does for
"Hindu", or "Mahometan" for "Muslim".
If I'm not mistaken, the Chinese government also prefers the
"Uyghur" spelling, which regardless of the tradition in
English will
also, I suspect, eventually lead officials and others in the wider
world to adhere to that spelling over time. So although Michael is
indeed correct, in my view, in saying that "Uighur" has an
established
place in English, it strikes me that this place is considerably less
safe than it would be if the word were commonly used in English, which
it is manifestly not. Given this situation, I believe that
alternative renderings by interested writers, whether English-speakers
or not, will likely impact the matter, and that "Uyghur" thus
may well
continue to compete with, and perhaps eventually win out over,
"Uighur". Traditionalists may not like it, and it may indeed
introduce some confusion (such as, for instance, in searching for one
version or the other in databases and not coming up with documents
using the other version, etc.), but it does seem to me that, judged on
recent writing, there is a trend in the direction of "Uyghur"
that may be irreversible.
Conclusion: It is better to use "Uyghur".
http://www.meshrep.com/wforum/viewtopic.php?t=4924&sid=e9568e070f8385189f4388fa6a27a3b0
I haven't weighed in to date on the Uighur versus Uyghur issue,
partially since I've considered it a question of fairly minor
importance, and partially since I have no strong preference myself
either way. Since the question doesn't seem to have died down,
however, I've thought about it a bit and have decided to send
along my
own proverbial two cents' worth, in the hopes that I won't
make any
permanent enemies thereby.
Although normally somewhat of a traditionalist and thus fairly
sympathetic to Michael's position, I also find the spelling
"Uighur"
to be particularly unattractive, and even un-English, regardless of
its historical pedigree, and believe as well that the "Uyghur"
rendering is in fact supplanting it fairly rapidly in common usage
among scholars and linguists working in the field. No matter how
well-established "Uighur" may be in certain writing on the
Central
Asian area, it seems to me that it has not really penetrated the
active or passive vocabulary of most well-read native speakers of
English, unless they be specialists on the area.
Looking at recent publications on the language per se, I see that
Reinhard Hahn entitled his book "Spoken Uyghur", while Michael
Friedrich entitled his (in German) "Uyghurisch". Henry
Schwarz also
used "Uyghur" for his dictionary. The relevant sections in
the
compendium "The Turkic Languages" (again written by Hahn) uses
"Uyghur", while Anne Lee's translation of the Hamit Tomur
grammar is
entitled "Modern Uyghur Grammar". Indiana University's
Center for
Languages of the Central Asian Region uses "Uyghur", Radio
Free Asia
uses "Uyghur", the Uyghur Dictionary Projects uses
"Uyghur", etc.
There thus seems to be a trend in the recent Western writing on the
language and people itself toward "Uyghur", although the
traditional
spelling of "Uighur" obviously continues to be widely used as
well.
Given that most of the Turkic languages and peoples are not that
well known to most English speakers, it strikes me as only natural
that, at least in some cases, there may be in time a trend away from
the more traditional spellings to ones that more closely resemble
their actual native pronunciations. This is especially the case when
sovereign states weigh in to have the English versions of their names
changed. "Tartar" gave way some time ago to "Tatar",
"Turkoman/Turcoman" has largely given way to
"Turkmen", "Kirghiz" to
"Kyrgyz" (no matter how strange the latter looks to English
speakers),
etc. "Sinkiang" is, I believe, the traditional spelling for
the
geographical region inhabited by the Uyghurs/Uighurs, but given the
ascendancy of Pinyin these days, I suspect that few of us are still
using that earlier spelling, and that it will eventually take on the
patina and associations of an earlier age, just as "Hindoo"
does for
"Hindu", or "Mahometan" for "Muslim".
If I'm not mistaken, the Chinese government also prefers the
"Uyghur" spelling, which regardless of the tradition in
English will
also, I suspect, eventually lead officials and others in the wider
world to adhere to that spelling over time. So although Michael is
indeed correct, in my view, in saying that "Uighur" has an
established
place in English, it strikes me that this place is considerably less
safe than it would be if the word were commonly used in English, which
it is manifestly not. Given this situation, I believe that
alternative renderings by interested writers, whether English-speakers
or not, will likely impact the matter, and that "Uyghur" thus
may well
continue to compete with, and perhaps eventually win out over,
"Uighur". Traditionalists may not like it, and it may indeed
introduce some confusion (such as, for instance, in searching for one
version or the other in databases and not coming up with documents
using the other version, etc.), but it does seem to me that, judged on
recent writing, there is a trend in the direction of "Uyghur"
that may be irreversible.
Conclusion: It is better to use "Uyghur".