Discover the language
Uyghur is a language belonging to the Turkic group of the Altaic family. It is spoken by ten million people in the Uyghur region and has two million speakers in the diaspora mainly settled in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia and Turkey. It has thus become one of China's most important and widely used languages. The Uyghurs' essential place in Turkish history and the importance of their language in the study of the Turkic-speaking world and Central Asia cannot be ignored. Today, as a bridge between China, Central Asia and Turkey, Uyghur studies have once again become a field of particular interest to Anglo-Saxon researchers. In France, researchers' interest in this population is timidly emerging but nonetheless promising.
Studying Uyghur at Inalco
The Uyghur course was set up for the first time at Inalco in January 2013. In Europe, Inalco is one of the only institutions to offer training in Uyghur, along with Charles University in Prague.
The teaching of Uyghur is offered in initiation and as an opening course as part of the licence de Turc.
The main thrusts of the program
- Introduction to the Uyghur language and script;
- Reading and writing modern Uyghur;
- Basic grammar of the Uyghur language ;
- Understanding and communicating with basic conversation;
- Understanding the socio-linguistic landscape of the Uyghur environment;
- Presentation of brief Uyghur history and culture.
