Endangered Languages Project

ALSO KNOWN AS		Lopluk, 維吾爾語羅布話
CLASSIFICATION		Turkic, Central Asian Turkic
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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS		"The Lopnor dialect is considered one of the three regional varieties of Uyghur in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. It is spoken by approximately less than 0.5% of the Uyghur population. Nevertheless, it occupies a special position not only among the regional varieties of Uyghur, but also in comparative research on Turkic languages. It also provides a crucial data for language contact in this area. The Lopnor dialect displays a set of unique phonological, morphological and syntactic features alien to other varieties of Uyghur. Its lexicon contains exceptional items relating to fishing and some rare Old Turkic words and copies (loan words) from Mongolian. Thus, some scholar consider it as an independent language rather than a variety of Uyghur." (Abdurehim 2014: 26)

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Information from: “The Lopnor dialect of Uyghur - A descriptive analysis” . Abdurehim, Esmael (2014)

Critically endangered

100 percent certain, based on the evidence available
<24,000
Native speakers worldwide
Ethnic population
24,000
CHILDREN
0
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
"I assume that the number of the Lopnor dialect speakers in 1982 must have been less than 24,000 as this is the number of Uyghur people in the entire Lopnor region. Therefore, this number may include some speakers of the central dialect and migrant Uyghur people from other parts of Xinjiang." (p.19)

DATE OF INFO: 1982

DOMAINS OF USE
SPEAKER NUMBER TRENDS
TRANSMISSION
SPEAKER ATTITUDE: "only a limited number of people in the community believe that the Lopnor dialect is a practical and more expressive way of speaking."
GOVERNMENT SUPPORT: no
INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT: no
OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY
LANGUAGE CONTEXT COMMENTS: "Based on the recent fieldwork, it is estimated that only a few speakers over 80 years of age have a good command of the dialect and are dialect-dominant. Individuals over the age of 50 speak in both the Lopnor dialect and Standard Uyghur. Speakers under 30 are multilingual (typically Uyghur and Mandarin Chinese) and they have kept only some traces of the Lopnor dialect. The transfer of the Lopnor dialect to the next generation has already essentially stopped. Today's children grow up using Standard Uyghur or Mandarin Chinese." (p.33)

PLACES: China

LOCATION DESCRIPTION: the villages in Tarim, Dongqotan, Gulbagh and Aqsupi

OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY
LANGUAGE CONTEXT COMMENTS: no attempts at revitalizing their heritage language

PLACES: China

LOCATION DESCRIPTION: East Turkestan/Xinjiang

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: "Lop Nor Uighur was spoken in the Lop Nor region (around lake Lop Nor), but due to China's nuclear experiments in the region the population was moved in the 1950s to other parts of East Turkestan, where they have become assimilated by speakers of regular Uighur."

May	JUN	Jul
	16
2022	2023	2024

Lopnor Uighur

Language metadata

Language information by source

Critically endangered

100 percent certain, based on the evidence available

<24,000

Discussion

		March			2015	Personal Communication on Lopnor Uighur															Juha Janhunen	Juha Janhunen. 2015. Personal Communication on Lopnor Uighur.													all	Uighur				no attempts at revitalizing their heritage language		all								"Lop Nor Uighur was spoken in the Lop Nor region (around lake Lop Nor), but due to China's nuclear experiments in the region the population was moved in the 1950s to other parts of East Turkestan, where they have become assimilated by speakers of regular Uighur."	China	East Turkestan/Xinjiang
	Publications of the Institute for Asian and African Studies				2014	The Lopnor dialect of Uyghur - A descriptive analysis								17					University of Helsinki	https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/136392	Abdurehim, Esmael	Abdurehim, Esmael. 2014. The Lopnor dialect of Uyghur - A descriptive analysis. PhD dissertation, Department of World Cultures, University of Helsinki.			24,000			<24,000	1982	100-999	"I assume that the number of the Lopnor dialect speakers in 1982 must have been less than 24,000 as this is the number of Uyghur people in the entire Lopnor region. Therefore, this number may include some speakers of the central dialect and migrant Uyghur people from other parts of Xinjiang." (p.19)				all	Standard Uyghur; Mandarin Chinese		no	"only a limited number of people in the community believe that the Lopnor dialect is a practical and more expressive way of speaking."	"Based on the recent fieldwork, it is estimated that only a few speakers over 80 years of age have a good command of the dialect and are dialect-dominant. Individuals over the age of 50 speak in both the Lopnor dialect and Standard Uyghur. Speakers under 30 are multilingual (typically Uyghur and Mandarin Chinese) and they have kept only some traces of the Lopnor dialect. The transfer of the Lopnor dialect to the next generation has already essentially stopped. Today's children grow up using Standard Uyghur or Mandarin Chinese." (p.33)	no	almost all	Critically Endangered (100 percent certain, based on the evidence available)	14			15	15			China	the villages in Tarim, Dongqotan, Gulbagh and Aqsupi	40.983,84.224

Lopnor Uighur

Language metadata

Language information by source

Critically endangered

100 percent certain, based on the evidence available

<24,000

Discussion

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