The Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) released a report which offers a guide to rendering the Uyghur language into Latin script, reporting Uyghur personal names, and using Uyghur versions of geographical locations.
“Uyghurs are asking for our own names and the landscape of our homeland to be respected,” said Omer Kanat, UHRP Executive Director, in releasing the report. “UHRP asks that everyone think twice about the colonial names imposed on our homeland and our people.”
The guide notes the need to decolonize the regional toponyms. UHRP recommends researchers reconsider using the colonial term “Xinjiang,” meaning “new frontier,” and to refer to the region using the names used by Uyghurs themselves: “the Uyghur homeland,” “the Uyghur Region,” and “East Turkistan.” “East Turkistan” is widely used among Uyghurs in the Uyghur language as “Sherqiy Türkistan.”
For More:
https://uhrp.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/UHRP-Decolonising-Language_2022-12-20.pdf
