Uyghur

The Uyghur language is spoken by over 12 million people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China, as well as in Central Asia and the global Uyghur diaspora. In 2023, GW became one of the very few US universities to offer courses in Uyghur language.

GW’s Uyghur program offers beginning to advanced courses at the graduate and undergraduate level. Classes will help students develop their Uyghur language skills and cultural understanding through rigorous study and application.

Questions about the Uyghur program? Contact the Uyghur program coordinator.

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Uyghur Courses

Why Study Uyghur?

Today, the Uyghur language is important for the study of minoritized peoples in modern China. Yet Uyghur is also a language of poetry, philosophy, and science.

Uyghur is a Turkic language, very closely related to Chaghatay, the language of centuries of Central Asian literary classics. Uyghur utilizes a Perso-Arabic script. People who learn Uyghur can easily acquire other Turkic languages such as Turkish, Uzbek, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz.

The Uyghur Studies Initiative at the Sigur Center for Asian Studies provides summer funding for graduate-level research and language study.

Many students pursue further Uyghur-language study at the University of Wisconsin’s Central Eurasian Studies Summer Institute.

Mosque with green dome. — Photo Credit: Eric Schluessel. Golden Mosque of Yarkand, historic seat of the Yarkand Khanate (1514–1705), situated in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. Captured in the royal cemetery of the Sa'idiya Dynasty.

Uyghur is a program unit within the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. Currently, the program offers two years of language study. However, we do not offer a major or minor in Uyghur.