The New Dominion

Survival Uyghur

From The New Dominion

Lesson Six: Could I have a napkin?

Introduction

Salam! and welcome to “Survival Uyghur”, The New Dominion’s series on speaking practical Uyghur. Last week, we learned to talk about “we” and “y’all”, as well as “I” and “you”. This week, we will learn to form questions with the verbs you know. We’re finishing up with restaurant language, at least for now, and we’ll start on more everyday language next week.

First, though, here’s your weekly useful phrase! Kächürüng. This means “Excuse me” or “I’m sorry.” Use it when you bump into someone. Use it to get someone’s attention in a polite way. Use it when you’ve overslept for class again. Remember to roll your r’s! Remember also that ü indicates a sound you make with your lips rounded and poking out in front of you. You can form it by making an iiii with your lips spread wide and tight, then drawing them into the position for a u. For those of you who’ve studied Chinese, this is the sound in jun, qu, or xu. So: Kächürüng!

Dialogues

A. Server: Chay ichämsiz? Will you drink tea?

You: Hä’ä, chay ichimän. Yes, I’ll drink tea.

B. Server: Polo yämsiz? Will you eat polo?

You: Yaq, suyuq ash ichimän. No, I’ll drink suyuq ash. (Suyuq ash is a watery dish, so we “drink” it.)

C. You: Qäghäz berämsiz? Will you bring (tissue) paper?

Server: Hazir! Yes, right away!

D. You: Chay quyamsiz? Will you pour some tea?

Server: Hazir! Yes, right away!

Vocabulary and Pronunciation

qäghäz – This is a generic word for “paper”. In the restaurant context, it means “tissue paper”, the kind you use to wipe your face and clean up your immediate environment. In China, you’re meant to carry this around with you constantly. I’m constantly running out, so it’s a good thing that any respectable eating establishment has a supply on hand. Now, remember that q is a kind of “k” sound made in the very back of your mouth, where it meets your throat and the uvula (dangly bit). gh is made in the same place. gh, however, is a “fricative”, meaning you hold it out and let the air through. It’s like the “r” sound in French or German and not unlike when you get a hair caught in your throat and need to eject it. Combined with the vowel ä, which is like the “a” in “cat”, this makes for a very funny-sounding word. Try it out – qäghäz.

hazir – This means “now”. In this context, though, it’s a way for a server to indicate “Yes, right away!”

bär- – This is a verb meaning “to give”. For reasons we’ll discuss in a later lesson, it comes out as ber- in the present-future tense, which we’ve seen a lot of in the past few lessons. Let’s look at a chart, like the ones we saw last week for yä- “to eat” and ich- “to drink”:

quy- – This is a verb meaning “to pour”. In this context, we’re talking about chay qoy-, serving (or “pouring”) tea. You can use this phrase when you want the server to bring some tea or add some to your pot. Chay quyimän means “I’ll serve tea.”

Grammar – Forming Questions

All of the verbs above are statements. Polo yäymiz. “We eat polo.” Qähwä ichisilär. “You drink coffee.”

They are formed in the same basic way: STEM + i + PERSON, or, for example, quy- + i + miz, “we pour”.

Questions are formed very similarly: STEM + am/äm + PERSON, or, for example, quy + am + siz, “will/do you pour?” and ich + äm + silär, “will/do you drink”? -am-/-äm- is a question suffix.

Where the stem ends in a vowel, it blends into the question suffix -am-/-äm-. For now, the only verb that does that is yä- “to eat”: yämsiz? yämsilär?

In Uyghur, you ask questions of yourself differently from the way you ask questions of others. We may work on that in a later lesson. For now, just learn to ask a siz or silär what they will eat, drink, bring, place, or take.

These questions can often be used as a polite request, as in the dialogues above. (We’ll work on imperatives later.) Of course, they are often simple inquiries.

Dialogue Combination

Server: Nimä yäysilär? What’ll you have?

You: Ikki polo wä bir laghman yäymiz. We’ll have two polos and one laghman.

Server: Kawap yämsilär? Will you have kebabs?

You: Hä’ä, bäsh kawap yäymiz. Yes, we’ll have five kebabs.

Server: Chay ichämsilär? Will you drink tea?

You: Hä’ä, chay ichimiz. Yes, we’ll drink tea.

Five minutes later, your hands are greasy, and you’re in need of tissue paper…

You: Kächürüng! Qäghäz berämsiz? Excuse me! Would you bring us tissue paper?

Server: Hazir berimän. I’ll bring it now.

Ten minutes later, your teapot is empty…

You: Kächürüng! Chay quyamsiz? Excuse me! Would you pour some tea?

Server: Hazir quyimän. I’ll pour it now.

You: Rähmät! Thank you!