Features of Languages in Xinjiang

5 min read

The written and spoken language system in Xinjiang can be divided into two major periods by the entry of the Karluk and Uighur people in the 8th_oth centuries. The first period was dominated by Indo-European languages, Brahmi script and Chinese; while the second by Altaic Turkic languages, Aramaic and Arabic alphabetic scripts. The first period was composed of two parts on a geographical basis: the northern (and eastern) part of the Tarim Basin, where Tocharian language of the Indo-European family and the italic script of Brahmi, Yanqi-Qiuci script as well as Chinese were popular; and the southern part, which saw the prevalence of Kharosthi-script Gandhara of the Indo-European family and Chinese first (about the 21d_4th centuries AD), and later the Sakic language of the Indo-European family, the straight script of Brahmi-Yutian Sakic script as well as Chinese(about the sth-10h centuries AD). The second period consists of two stages in different time frames. The first stage was from the oth to 14th century. Despite the fact that it was both Turkic-speaking Uighurs who held the ruling power in the two kingdoms at that time, they had no unified languages due to their religious difference and opposite regimes. The northeastern Gaochang Uighur Khanate believed in Buddhism and regarded the Uighur/Huihu script-based Turkic as their official language; while the south Western Karakhanid Dynasty believed in Islam and regarded Hakaniye script, which was Arabic alphabet-based Turkic as their official language. The second stage runs from the 15th century up to now. During this period, Islam became the dominant religion in the entire southern part of the Tianshan Mountains, and the parallel prevalence of two written languages in the previous stage gave place to a single script, Chagatai script, which later on went through a series of changes such as the old and new Uygur scripts, finally forming the current Uygur script. In the whole process of development over the past 2000 years and more, other languages were also spoken and used in Xinjiang as it is the junction of four major civilizations of the world. Sogdian, the oldest language for international trade, was used here after the beginning of the Christian era and affected the formulation and use of Turkic and Uighur/Huihu script, and even Mongolian, Tibetan and Manchu language. Turkic script also used to be prevalent as the primitive written language of the Turkic-speaking people. In addition, the ancient Tibetan script of Tubo, the Khitan script of Western Liao, the three Mongolian scripts(Uighur-style Mongolian, Phags-pa script and Todo script), and Manchu script of the Qing Dynasty were all used widely in a certain period and scope there. The four sacred languages of religions, Sanskrit, Manichean script, Syriac and Arabic also left their mark in the region. In modern times,a number of languages were spoken in Xinjiang and 7 scripts, Chinese, Uygur, Mongolian, Kazakh, Kirgiz, Xibe and Russian were used in writing there as a result of movement of ethnic groups and their cultural advancement. Most of the aforementioned spoken languages and scripts were or have been present in Xinjiang for a while only, either separately or in different combinations. Only Chinese, the earliest script that appeared there, has been in use throughout the entire history.

The overwhelming feature of languages in Xin jiang is their diversity and colorfulness, which is manifested in the following aspects.

First, huge quantity. Historically, Xin jiang has used over 30 spoken languages and more than 20 written scripts, which far exceeds any other region in terms of quantity.

Second, multiple families of languages. All the four major families of languages in the world, the Altaic, the Indo-European, the Sino-Tibetan and the Hamito-Semitic, have(or had) their representatives in Xinjiang. Turkic, Uighur/Huihu language, Uygur, Mongolian and Manchu belong to three subgroups of the Altaic family: Turkic subgroup(Turkic, Uighur/Huihu language and Uygur), Mongolian subgroup(Mongolian) and Manchu-Tungusic subgroup(Manchu). Gandhara, Tocharian, Tutian Sakic and Sogdian belong to two subgroups of the Indo-European family: Indian subgroup (Gandhara and Tocharian) and Iranian subgroup(Yutian Sakic and Sogdian). Chinese and Tubo language belong to two subgroups of the Sino-Tibetan family: Chinese subgroup (Chinese) and Tibeto-Burman subgroup(Tubo language). Arabic and Syriac belong to the Semitic subgroup of the Hamito-Semitic family.

Third, various sources of scripts. There are about five sources for all written languages in Xinjiang, The Yanqi-Qiuci, Yutian, Tubo and Phags-pa scripts come from Indian Brahmiscript; Kharosthi, Sogdian and Turkic come from Persian Aramaic alphabet (as mentionedbefore, Uighur/Huihu script, Uighur-style Mongolian, Todo script, Manchu script and Xibe script are affected by Sogdian); Hakaniye, Chagatai, Uygur, Kazakh and Kirgiz scripts come from Arabic alphabet; Khitan script comes from Chinese and Russian script comes from Slavic language.

The languages in Xinjiang fully testify to the integration and interconnection of world cultures as well as the capacity and inclusiveness of this region in absorbing outside cultures.

There is one more feature to the languages in Xin jiang, which is the close associationof languages with political, economic and cultural developments there. Religious culture has the biggest bearing on languages in Xin jiang, which is manifested in the entry of four sacred languages of religions: Sanskrit, Manichean script, Syriac and Arabic. As a further demonstration of such impact, the Arabic alphabet that went into the Western Regions with Islam finally took the place of Brahmi as the dominant script. What comes next is economic factor. The entry of Sogdian was a typical case of languages in the Western Regions being affected by the economy. As Sogdian found its way in, it not only added t the number of languages but also affected, or facilitated the formulation of a series of languages. Therefore its role cannot be underestimated. The transmission of Chinese and Manichean language was also more or less directly linked with economic demand. As to political factors, their impact can be felt in every historical period. Chinese, ancient Tibetan, Khitan, Mongolian and Manchu were used in the Western Regions as the language of the ruling dynasty in different periods, and they all left marks, to varying degrees, on other languages.A prominent example of such impact is the appearance of Chinese either simultaneously or alternatively with other languages in documents of almost all historical periods.