Uyghur Language - Classification

Classification

The Uyghur language belongs to the Uyghur Turkic (or Uyghuric) branch of the Turkic language family. It is closely related to Western Yugur, Salar, Äynu, Lop, Ili Turki, the extinct languages Old Turkic and Chagatay (the East Uyghuric languages), and more distantly to Uzbek (which is West Uyghuric).

Early linguistic scholarly studies of Uyghur include Julius Klaproth's 1812 Dissertation on language and script of the Uighurs (Abhandlung über die Sprache und Schrift der Uiguren) which was disputed by Isaak Jakob Schmidt. In this period, Klaproth correctly asserted that Uyghur was a Turkic language, while Schmidt believed that Uyghur should be classified with Tangut languages.