Thread by @dakekang

1/ It's official. The Associated Press is now using the spelling "Uyghur", not "Uighur".

This is because "Uyghur" is closer to the native pronunciation of the word: OOEE’-ger. The pronunciation WEE’-ger, common in Anglophone media, is slightly off.

A bit of history...

https://twitter.com/APStylebook/status/1364263010299215872

2/ In the 1960s, during the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese government banned use of the Uyghur script, based on Arabic letters, and instead forced Uyghurs to use a Romanized form based on the Pinyin system.

3/ Restrictions on use of the Uyghur script were lifted with liberal reforms in 1979, but use of the old Pinyin-based romanization system persisted in English-language Chinese media and government communications.

4/ In 2000, Xinjiang University and the Xinjiang Language Committee convened a conference, “The Standardization of Uyghur in the Latin Alphabet”. There, scholars established the first standard romanization for the Uyghur language by Uyghurs themselves.

5/ Under that standard, the spelling “Uyghur” with a “y” more accurately described the word’s pronunciation in Uyghur, rather than “Uighur” or “Uigur”, as common in China at that time (and to this day).

6/ However, some scholars disagreed with the conference’s decision, and non-Uyghur Chinese media continued to use the old romanization. A split result, with "Uyghur" becoming common among Uyghurs in Xinjiang, and the old Pinyin romanization remaining in use in the rest of China.

7/ Thanks to @AbduwelA for his invaluable input and his history lesson on the romanization of Uyghur, which I have written out in this thread.