Textbooks
On this page I will list and describe various books on the Uyghur language itself, ranging from graded lesson books for language learners to more advanced academic volumes and works in different languages. I will also provide publication and availability details, and links to digital copies wherever possible.
For Beginners
Greetings from the Teklimakan: a handbook of Modern Uyghur Vol. 1
Tarjei Engesæth, Mahire Yakup, and Arienne Dwyer.
Lawrence: University of Kansas Scholarworks, 2009.
Free download here.
Originally drafted by Engesæth in two volumes in the early 2000s, the first volume has been reworked by the team from KU. Although not without its critics, it’s the first textbook I suggest for those starting out in Uyghur.
Sadly, they haven’t gotten around to Volume 2 yet, but you can download the original draft version here.
Advanced Studies
Modern Uyghur Grammar
Hemit Tömür (translated by Anne Lee)
Istanbul, 2003.
Scan available here.
This is by no means a graded textbook, but it is the go-to book for a systematic breakdown of Uyghur morphology (with lots of example sentences.) One thing the book could really do with is an index – yet another thing in my tickler file of potential projects!
This is an English translation of an original Uyghur work written by famed linguist Hemit Tömür (d. 2006) and first published in Beijing in 1987. A scan of the 2011 edition of Hazirqi Zaman Uyghur Tili Grammatikisi is available here.