Uzbek language

Uzbek is a Karluk Turkic language spoken by Uzbeks. It is the official and national language of Uzbekistan and formally succeeded Chagatai, an earlier Karluk language endonymically called or , as the literary language of Uzbekistan in the 1920s.

According to the Ethnologue, Southern Uzbek and Standard Uzbek are spoken as a native language by more than 34 million people around the world, making Uzbek the second-most widely spoken Turkic language after Turkish. In addition to these native speakers, there are members of many other ethnic groups such as Tajiks, Kazakhs, and Russians who live in Uzbekistan and speak Uzbek as their second language.

There are two major variants of the Uzbek language: Northern Uzbek, or simply "Uzbek", spoken in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and China; and Southern Uzbek, spoken in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Both Northern and Southern Uzbek are divided into many dialects. Uzbek and Uyghur are sister languages and they constitute the Karluk or "Southeastern" branch of Turkic.

External influences on Uzbek include Persian, Russian, and Arabic. One of the most noticeable distinctions of Uzbek from other Turkic languages is the rounding of the vowel to under the influence of Persian. Unlike other Turkic languages, vowel harmony is almost completely lost in modern Standard Uzbek due to extensive linguistic contact with Persian, though it is still observed to some small degree in its dialects, as well as in its sister Karluk language Uyghur.

Different dialects of Uzbek show varying degrees of influence from other languages such as Kipchak and Oghuz Turkic (for example, in grammar) as well as Persian (in phonology), which gives literary Uzbek the impression of being a mixed language.

In February 2021, the Uzbek government announced that Uzbekistan plans to fully transition the Uzbek language from the Cyrillic script to a Latin-based alphabet by 1 January 2023. Similar deadlines had been extended several times. most institutions still use both alphabets.

Classification

Uzbek is the western member of the Karluk branch of the Turkic language family, the eastern member of which is Uyghur. Karluk is classified as a dialect continuum. Northern Uzbek has been determined to be the variety most readily understood by the greatest number of speakers of Turkic languages as a whole – excluding the Siberian Turkic languages – despite its heavy Persianised character. The high degree of mutual intelligibility that exists among certain Turkic languages enables Uzbek speakers to comprehend various other, more distantly related Turkic languages with relative ease.

Number of speakers

Uzbek, being the most widely spoken indigenous language in Central Asia, is as well spoken by smaller ethnic groups in Uzbekistan and in neighbouring countries.

The language is spoken by other ethnic groups outside Uzbekistan. The popularity of Uzbek media, including Uzbekfilm and RizanovaUz, has spread among the post-Soviet states, particularly in Central Asia in recent years. Since Uzbek is the dominant language in the Osh Region of Kyrgyzstan (and mothertongue of the city Osh), like the rest of Eastern, Southern and South-Eastern Kyrgyzstan (Jalal-Abad Region), the ethnic Kyrgyz are, too, exposed to Uzbek, and some speak it fluently. This is a common situation in the rest of Central Asian republics, including: the Turkistan region of Kazakhstan, northern Daşoguz Welaýat of Turkmenistan, Sughd region and other regions of Tajikistan.

The Uzbek language has a special status in countries that are common destination for immigration for Uzbekistani citizens. Other than Uzbekistan and other Central Asian Republics, the ethnic Uzbeks most commonly choose the Russian Federation in search of work. Most of them however, are seasonal workers, whose numbers vary greatly among residency within the Russian Federation. According to Russian government statistics, 4.5 million workers from Uzbekistan, 2.4 million from Tajikistan, and 920,000 from Kyrgyzstan were working in Russia in 2021, with around 5 million being ethnic Uzbeks. and the CIA World Factbook estimates 30 million. Other sources estimate the number of speakers of Uzbek to be 34 million in Uzbekistan, 4.5 million in Afghanistan, 1,630,000 in Pakistan, about 1 million in Kyrgyzstan, 600,000 in Kazakhstan, 600,000 in Turkmenistan, and 300,000 in Russia.

The Uzbek language is taught in more than fifty higher education institutions around the world.

Etymology

Historically, the language under the name Uzbek referred to a totally different language of Kipchak origin. The language was generally similar to the neighbouring Kazakh, more or less identical lexically, phonetically and grammatically. It was dissimilar to the area's indigenous and native language, known as Turki, until it was changed to Chagatai by western scholars due to its origins from the Chagatai Khanate.

The ethnonym of the language itself now means "a language spoken by the Uzbeks."

History

Turkic speakers probably settled the Amu Darya, Syr Darya and Zarafshon river basins from at least 600–650 AD, gradually ousting or assimilating the speakers of the Eastern Iranian languages who previously inhabited Sogdia, Bactria and Khwarazm. The first Turkic dynasty in the region was that of the Kara-Khanid Khanate from the 9th–12th centuries, a confederation of Karluks, Chigils, Yagma, and other tribes.

Uzbek (along with Uyghur) can be considered the direct descendant of Chagatai, the language of great Turkic Central Asian literary development in the realm of Chagatai Khan, Timur (Tamerlane), and the Timurid dynasty (including the early Mughal rulers of the Mughal Empire). Chagatai contained large numbers of Persian and Arabic loanwords. By the 19th century, it was rarely used for literary composition and disappeared only in the early 20th century.

Muhammad Shaybani ( – 2 December 1510), the first Khan of Bukhara, wrote poetry under the pseudonym "Shibani". A collection of Chagatai poems by Muhammad Shaybani is currently kept in the Topkapı Palace Museum manuscript collection in Istanbul. The manuscript of his philosophical and religious work, Bahr al-Khudā, written in 1508, is located in London.

Shaybani's nephew Ubaydullah Khan (1486–1540) skillfully recited the Quran and provided it with commentaries in Chagatai. Ubaydulla himself wrote poetry in Chagatai, Classical Persian, and Arabic under the literary pseudonym Ubaydiy.

For the Uzbek political elite of the 16th century, Chagatai was their native language. For example, the leader of the semi-nomadic Uzbeks, Sheibani Khan (1451–1510), wrote poems in Chagatai.

The poet Turdiy (17th century) in his poems called for the unification of the divided Uzbek tribes: "Although our people are divided, but these are all Uzbeks of ninety-two tribes. We have different names – we all have the same blood. We are one people, and we should have one law. Floors, sleeves and collars – it's all – one robe, So the Uzbek people are united, may they be in peace."

Sufi Allayar (1633–1721) was an outstanding theologian and one of the Sufi leaders of the Khanate of Bukhara. He showed his level of knowledge by writing a book called Sebâtü'l-Âcizîn. Sufi Allayar was often read and highly appreciated in Central Asia.

The term Uzbek as applied to language has meant different things at different times.

Uzbek was a vowel-harmonised Kipchak language spoken by descendants of those who arrived in Transoxiana who lived mainly around Bukhara and Samarkand.
Chagatai was a Karluk language spoken by the older settled Turkic populations ("Sarts") of the region in the Fergana Valley and the Qashqadaryo Region, and in some parts of what is now the Samarqand Region; it contained a heavier admixture of Persian and Arabic and did not have vowel harmony.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth century, Chagatai remained the main literary language in most of Central Asia, but it faced a phase of decay. Eventually, Chagatai was mostly referred to as the language of the Sarts, the settled Turkic-speaking populations of the Fergana Valley, although the definition of this term shifted through the decades. According to the Kazakh scholar Serali Lapin, who lived at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century, "there is no special Sart language different from Uzbek". Russian researchers of the second half of the 19th century, like L. N. Sobolev, believed that "Sart is not a special tribe, as many tried to prove. Sart is indifferently called both Uzbek and Tajik, who live in the city and are engaged in trade".

As part of the preparation for the 1924 establishment of the Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan, Chagatai was officially renamed "Old Uzbek", which Edward A. Allworth argued "badly distorted the literary history of the region" and was used to give authors such as Ali-Shir Nava'i an Uzbek identity.

After the independence of Uzbekistan, the Uzbek government opted to reform Northern Uzbek by changing its alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin in an attempt to stimulate the growth of Uzbek in a new, independent state. However, the reform never went into full application, and both alphabets are widely used, from daily uses to government publications and TV news. The Uzbek language has not eclipsed Russian in the government sector since Russian is used widely in sciences, politics, and by the upper class of the country. However, the Uzbek internet, including Uzbek Wikipedia, is growing rapidly.

Writing systems

thumb|upright=0.54|A 1911 text in the [[Arabic alphabet]]

thumb|right|Covers of translated books in Uzbek. As can be seen, both Latin and Cyrillic scripts are widely used in the country. Most names are also transliterated, for example .

Uzbek has been written in a variety of scripts throughout history:

1000–1920s: The traditional Arabic script, first in the Qarakhanid standard and next in the Chagatai standard. This is seen as the golden age of the Uzbek language and literary history.
1920–1928: the Arabic-based Yaña imlâ alphabet.
1928–1940: the Latin-based Yañalif was imposed officially.
1940–1992: the Cyrillic script was used officially.
Since 1992: Switch back to Latin script, with heavy holdover usage of Cyrillic.

Despite the official status of the Latin script in Uzbekistan, the use of Cyrillic is still widespread, especially in advertisements and signs. In newspapers, scripts may be mixed, with headlines in Latin and articles in Cyrillic. The Arabic script is no longer used in Uzbekistan except symbolically in limited texts or for the academic studies of Chagatai (Old Uzbek). This would have reversed a 1995 reform, and brought the orthography closer to that of Turkish and also of Turkmen, Karakalpak, Kazakh (2018 version) and Azerbaijani. In 2021, it was proposed to change "sh", "ch", "oʻ" and "gʻ" to "ş", "ç", "ō" and "ḡ". where there is an Uzbek minority, the Arabic-based script is still used. In the early 21st century, in Afghanistan, standardization, publication of dictionaries, and an increase in usage (for example in news agencies' websites, such as that of the BBC) has been taking place.

{| class="standard" cellpadding="5" style="font-size: 1.6em; font-family:'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 2em; text-align: center;"

|+ style="font-family:'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, sans-serif;" |Modern Latin alphabet

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |А а

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |B b

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |D d

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Е е

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |F f

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |G g

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |H h

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |I i

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |J j

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |K k

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |L l

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |М m

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |N n

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |О о

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |P p

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Q q

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |R r

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |S s

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Т t

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |U u

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |V v

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |X x

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Y y

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Z z

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Oʻ oʻ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Gʻ gʻ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Sh sh

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ch ch

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ng ng

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |

{| class="standard" cellpadding="5" style="font-size: 1.6em; font-family:'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 2em; text-align: center;"

|+ style="font-family:'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, sans-serif;" |Cyrillic alphabet

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |А а

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Б б

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |В в

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Г г

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Д д

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Е е

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ё ё

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ж ж

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |З з

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |И и

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Й й

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |К к

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Л л

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |М м

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Н н

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |О о

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |П п

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Р р

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |С с

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Т т

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |У у

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ф ф

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Х х

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ц ц

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ч ч

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ш ш

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ъ ъ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ь ь

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Э э

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ю ю

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Я я

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ў ў

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Қ қ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ғ ғ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ҳ ҳ

{| class="standard" cellpadding="5" style="font-size: 1.6em; font-family:'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 2em; text-align: center;"

|+ style="font-family:'Arial Unicode MS', Arial, sans-serif;" |Modern Arabic alphabet

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | ا

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | ب

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | پ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | ت

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | ث

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | ج

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | چ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | ح

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | خ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | د

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | ذ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | ر

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | ز

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | ژ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | س

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | ش

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | ص

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | ض

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | ط

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | ظ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | ع

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | غ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | ف

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | ق

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | ک

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | گ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | ل

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | م

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | ن

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | و

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | ه

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | ی

Phonology

Words are usually stressed on the last syllable with the exception of some suffixal particles, which are not stressed. Consonants in brackets are only attested in loanwords.

Vowels

Standard Uzbek has six vowel phonemes. Uzbek language has many dialects: contrary to many Turkic languages, Standard Uzbek has completely lost vowel harmony due to Persian influence, but other dialects (Kipchak Uzbek and Oghuz Uzbek) retain it.

{| class="wikitable"

|- align="center"

!Front

!Central

!Back

|- align="center"

! Close

| colspan="2" | ~

|- align="center"

! Mid

|- align="center"

! Open

| colspan="2" | ~

| ~

Around uvular consonants:
// goes back to .
// goes back to .
// goes back to .
Elsewhere:
// is pronounced .
// may be shortened to .
// may be shortened to .
Despite the Uzbek language no longer having vowel harmony, some local varieties geographically close to other Turkic languages who do (like Kazakh, Turkmen and Kyrgyz) may display it:
// goes back to around back vowels or uvular consonants, e.g. soya سایه "shadow" [sɒˈjɑ ~ sɒˈjæ].
// goes back to around back vowels or uvular consonants, e.g. yaxshi یخشی "good" [jɑχˈʃɨ].
// may be fronted to around front vowels or , e.g. salom alaykum سلام علیکم "Peace be upon you" [sɑˌlɒm‿ælæjˈkym].
// may be fronted to around front vowels or , e.g. Oʻzbekiston اوزبیکستان "Uzbekistan" [œzbekɪstɒn].

Consonants

{| class="wikitable"

!colspan="2"|

! Labial

! Dental

! Alveolar

! Palatal

! Velar

! Uvular

! Glottal

|- align="center"

!colspan="2"| Nasal

|- align="center"

!rowspan="2"| Plosive/ Affricate

! voiceless

| ()

|- align="center"

! voiced

|- align="center"

!rowspan="2"| Fricative

! voiceless

|- align="center"

! voiced

| rowspan="2" |~

| ()

|- align="center"

!colspan="2"| Approximant

|- align="center"

!colspan="2"| Tap / Flap

|colspan=2|

In word-final position and preconsonantally, is an affricate ; elsewhere, it is a pre-uvular plosive .

Grammar

As a Turkic language, Uzbek is null subject, agglutinative and has no noun classes (gender or otherwise). Although Uzbek has no definite articles, it has indefinite articles bir بِیر and bitta بِیتَّه. Like other Turkic languages, nouns only conjugate as "definite" in the accusative case. An indefinite direct object is conjugated in the nominative case. The word order is subject–object–verb (SOV).

In Uzbek, there are two main categories of words: nominals (equivalent to nouns, pronouns, adjectives and some adverbs) and verbals (equivalent to verbs and some adverbs).

Nouns

Plurals are formed by suffix -lar ـلر. Nouns take the -ni ـنی suffix as a definite article when they are direct objects; unsuffixed nouns are understood as indefinite. The dative case ending -ga ـگه changes to -ka ـکه when the noun ends in -k ـک, -g ـگ, or -qa ـقه when the noun ends in -q ـق, -gʻ ـغ (notice *togʻqa → toqqa تاغقَّه). The possessive suffixes change the final consonants -k ـک and -q ـق to voiced -g ـگ and -gʻ ـغ, respectively (yurak → yuragim یورک - یورگیم). Unlike neighbouring Turkmen and Kazakh languages, due to the loss of "pronominal -n-" there is no irregularity in forming cases after possessive cases (uyida اویی‌ده "in his/her/its house", as opposed to Turkmen öýünde اویونده, though saying uyinda اویینده is also correct but such style is mainly used in literary contexts).

{| class="wikitable"

|+ Cases

! Case

! Suffix

! Example

| rowspan="2" | nominative

| -∅

| rowspan="2" | اوی house

|∅ـ

| rowspan="2" | genitive

| -ning

| rowspan="2" | اوی‌نینگ house-GEN of (the) house

|ـنینگ

| rowspan="2" | dative

| -ga

| rowspan="2" | اوی‌گه house-DAT to the house

|ـگه

| rowspan="2" | definite accusative

| -ni

| rowspan="2" | اوی‌نی house-DEF.ACC the house

|ـنی

| rowspan="2" | locative

| -da

| rowspan="2" | اوی‌ده house-LOC in the house

|ـده

| rowspan="2" | ablative

| -dan

| rowspan="2" | اوی‌دن house-ABL from the house

|ـدن

| rowspan="2" | instrumental (literary)

| -la

| rowspan="2" | اوی‌له house-INS with the house

|ـله

| rowspan="2" | similative

| -day, -dek, -daqa

| rowspan="2" | اوی‌دی، اوی‌دیک، اوی‌دقه house-SIM like (a) house (in appearance)

|ـدی، ـدیک، ـدقه

| rowspan="2"| equative/similative/approximative

| -cha (-çä)

| rowspan="2" |

uy-EQ/SIM similar to OR equal (in amount or height) to (a) house

{| class="wikitable"

|+ Possessive cases

! Possessor number

! Singular

! Plural

| rowspan="2" | 1st

| -(i)m

| -(i)miz

|ـم، ـیم

|ـمیز، ـیمیز

| rowspan="2" | 2nd

| -(i)ng

| -(i)ngiz

|ـنگ، ـینگ

|ـنگیز، ـینگیز

| rowspan="2" | 3rd

| colspan="2" | -(s)i

| colspan="2" |ـی، ـسی

Verbs

Uzbek verbs are also inflected for number and person of the subject, and it has more periphrases. Uzbek uses some of the inflectional (simple) verbal tenses:

:{| class="wikitable"

|+ Non-finite tense suffixes

! Function

! Suffix

! Example

! rowspan="2" | Infinitive

| -moq

| rowspan="2" | کورْماق to see

|ـماق

:{| class="wikitable mw-collapsible"

|+ Finite tense suffixes

! Function

! Suffix

! Example

! rowspan="2" | Present-future

| -a/-y

| rowspan="2" | کورَه see/will see

|ـَه، ـَه‌ی

! rowspan="2" | Focal present

| -yap

| rowspan="2" | کورْیَپ (currently) seeing

|ـیَپ

! rowspan="2" | Momentary present

| -yotir

| rowspan="2" | کورْیاتِیر seeing (at the moment)

|ـیاتِیر

! rowspan="2" | Progressive present

| -moqda

| rowspan="2" | کورْماقْدَه am seeing

|ـماقْدَه

! rowspan="2" | Present perfect

| -gan

| rowspan="2" | کورْگَن have seen

|ـگَن

! rowspan="2" | Simple past

| -di

| rowspan="2" | کورْدِی saw

|ـدِی

! rowspan="2" | Indirective past

| -ib

| rowspan="2" | کورِیب کیلْدِی came (to see)

|ـِیب

! rowspan="2" | Definite future

| -(y)ajak

| rowspan="2" | کورَه‌جَک will see (at a defined point in the future)

|ـَه‌جَک، ـیَه‌جَک'

! rowspan="2" | Obligatory future

| -adigan/ydigan

| rowspan="2" | کورَه‌دِیگَن (shall) see

|ـَه‌دِیگَن، ـیْدِیگَن

! Conditional

| -sa ـسَه

| کورْسَه if (it) sees

! rowspan="2" | Intentional

| -moqchi

| rowspan="2" | کورْماقْچِی (want to) see

|ـماقْچِی

! rowspan="2" | Imperative

| -(a)y (men)

-(a)ylik (biz)

-∅ (sen)

-(i)ng (siz)

-(i)nglar (sizlar)

-sin (u)

-sinlar (ular)

| rowspan="2" | کورَه‌ی (1st person singular)

کورَه‌یْلِیک (1st person plural)

کور (2nd person informal singular)

کورِینْگ (2nd person formal singular/plural)

کورِینْگْلَر (2nd person formal plural)

کورْسِین (3rd person singular)

کورْسِینْلَر (3rd person plural)

|ـَه‌ی (مین)

ـَه‌یْلِیک (بِیز)

ـ (سین)

ـِینْگ (سِیز)

ـِینْگْلَر (سِیزْلَر)

ـسِین (اُو)

ـسِینْلَر (اُولَر)

Notes

Vowels marked with parentheses in the suffixes are dropped if the verb root already ends on a vowel. (e.g. Qara قَرَه‌ + (i)ng ـِینْگ = Qarang! قَرَه‌نْگ; "Look!")

Third person plural is commonly replaced by third person singular.

In the simple past and conditional tenses, the possessive suffixes are used at the end of the verb. Otherwise, the full pronoun suffix is used, except in the imperative. The third person is usually not marked.

Copula verb

Conjugations of the verb ermoq (to be) with regard to tenses (except for future tense), serve as copula verbs. Future conjugation of ermoq, (Old Turkic ergäy) is not present in Uzbek.

Negation

Negative is expressed by adding -ma after the verb root, or with auxiliary verb emas.

Examples:

Koʻrmay(man) کورمه‌ی(من) "(I) don't see"

Koʻrmoqchi emas(man) کورماقچی ایمس(من) "(I) don't want to see"

The particle yoʻq ـیوق is used to mark the absence or prohibition of a noun or action.

Gerund

The gerund is formed with the verb root + ish ـیش.

Chekish mumkin emas چیکیش ممکن ایمس "Smoking is not allowed"

Pronouns

{| class="wikitable"

! Pronoun

! Suffix

! Translation

| men

| -man

| rowspan="2" | I

|مين

|ـمن

| biz

| -miz

| rowspan="2" | we

|بيز

|ـميز

| sen

|| -san

| rowspan="2" | you (formal singular and informal singular without respect)

|سين

|ـسن

| senlar

| -sanlar

| rowspan="2" | you (informal plural without respect)

|سينلر

|ـسنلر

| siz

| -siz

| rowspan="2" | you (formal plural and informal singular with respect)

|سيز

|ـسيز

| sizlar

| -sizlar

| rowspan="2" | you (informal plural with respect)

|سیزلر

|ـسیزلر

| u

| -∅

| rowspan="2" | he/she/it

|او

|∅ـ

| ular

|| -lar

| rowspan="2" | they

|اولر

|ـلر

Word order

The word order in the Uzbek language is subject–object–verb (SOV), like all other Turkic languages. Unlike in English, the object comes before the verb and the verb is the last element of the sentence.

Influences

The influence of Islam, and by extension, Arabic, is evident in Uzbek loanwords. There is also a residual influence of Russian, from the time when Uzbeks were under the rule of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. There are a large number of Russian loanwords in Uzbek, particularly when related to technical and modern terms, as well everyday and sociopolitical terms. Most importantly, Uzbek vocabulary, phraseology and pronunciation has been heavily influenced by Persian through its historic roots. It is estimated that Uzbek contains about 60 Mongolian loanwords, scattered among the names of birds and other animals, household items, chemical elements and especially military terms.

Dialects

thumb|A man speaking Uzbek

Uzbek can be roughly divided into three dialect groups. The Karluk dialects, centered on Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, and the Ferghana Valley, are the basis for the standard Uzbek language. This dialect group shows the most influence of Persian vocabulary, particularly in the important Tajik-dominated cities of Bukhara and Samarkand. The Kipchak dialect, spoken from the Surxondaryo region through north-central Uzbekistan into Karakalpakstan, shows significant influence from the Kipchak Turkic languages, particularly in the mutation of [j] to [ʑ] as in Kazakh and Kyrgyz. The Oghuz dialect, spoken mainly in Khorezm along the Turkmenistan border, is notable for the mutation of word-initial [k] to [g].

By country

Turkmenistan

In Turkmenistan since the 2000s the government conducted a forced "Turkmenization" of ethnic Uzbeks living in the country. In the Soviet years and in the 1990s, the Uzbek language was used freely in Turkmenistan. There were several hundred schools in the Uzbek language, many newspapers were published in this language. Now there are only a few Uzbek schools in the country, as well as a few newspapers in Uzbek. Despite this, the Uzbek language is still considered to be one of the recognized languages of national minorities in this country. Approximately 300,000–600,000 Uzbeks live in Turkmenistan. Most of the Uzbek speakers live in Dashoghuz Velayat, as well as in Lebap Velayat and partly in Ashghabad.

Russia

Uzbek is one of the many recognized languages of national minorities in Russia. More than 400 thousand Uzbeks are citizens of the Russian Federation and live in the country. Also in Russia there are 2 to 6 million Uzbeks from the Central Asian republics (mainly Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) who are immigrants and migrants. Large diasporas of Uzbeks live in large cities of Russia such as Saint Petersburg. Signs in Uzbek are often found in these cities. Signs refer mainly to various restaurants and eateries, barbershops, shops selling fruits, vegetables and textile products. There is a small clinic, where signs and labels are in the Uzbek language. Uzbeks in Russia prefer to use the Cyrillic Uzbek alphabet, but in recent years Uzbek youth in Russia are also actively using the Latin Uzbek alphabet. Small newspapers in Uzbek are published in large cities of Russia. Some instructions for immigrants and migrants are duplicated, including in Uzbek. Uzbek language is studied by Russian students in the faculties of Turkology throughout Russia. The largest Uzbek language learning centers in Russia are located in the universities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg. There are also many Russians who are interested in and love the Uzbek language and culture and who study this language for themselves. Uzbek is one of the most studied languages among the many languages of the former USSR in Russia.

Uzbek language researchers

Scientific interest in the history of the Uzbek language arose in the 19th century among European and Russian orientalists. Á. Vámbéry, V. Bartold, Sh. Lapin and others wrote about the history of the Uzbek language. Much attention was paid to the study of the history of the language in the Soviet period. E. Polivanov, N. Baskakov, A.Kononov, U. Tursunov, A. Mukhtarov, Sh. Rakhmatullaev and others wrote about the history of the Uzbek language among famous linguists.

Sample text

The following is a sample text in Uzbek Arabic script of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (with English version in the bottom), contrasted with a version of the text in Uzbek written in Latin script.

{| class="wikitable"

! Uzbek Arabic

| dir="rtl" |

!Uzbek Latin

! Uzbek Cyrillic

!IPA

|[bæ̞ɾˈt͡ʃʰæ̞ ɒd̪æ̞mˈlæ̞ɾ eɾˈkʰɪ̞n qäˈd̪ɨ̞ɾ qɨ̞mˈmät̪ ʋæ̞ hŭquqläɾˈd̪æ̞ t̪ʰeŋ bɵˈlɪ̞p t̪ʰuʁɨ̞läd̪ɪ̞ˈlæ̞ɾ ‖ uˈlæ̞ɾ äˈqɨ̞l ʋæ̞ ʋɪ̞d͡ʒˈd̪ɒn sɒhɪ̞bɪ̞dɪ̞ɾˈlæ̞ɾ ʋæ̞ bɪ̞ɾ bɪ̞ɾlæ̞ˈɾɪ̞ iˈlæ̞ bɪ̞ɾɒdæ̞ɾlæ̞ɾˈt͡ʃʰæ̞ muɒmæ̞ˈlæ̞ qɨ̞lɨ̞ʃlæ̞ˈɾɪ̞ zæ̞ˈɾuɾ ‖]

!English original

|All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Notes

References

Sources

Republic of Uzbekistan, Ministry of Higher and Middle Eductation. Lotin yozuviga asoslangan oʻzbek alifbosi va imlosi (Latin writing based Uzbek alphabet and orthography), Tashkent Finance Institute: Tashkent, 2004.
A. Shermatov. "A New Stage in the Development of Uzbek Dialectology" in Essays on Uzbek History, Culture and Language. Ed. Bakhtiyar A. Nazarov & Denis Sinor. Bloomington, Indiana, 1993, pp. 101–9.

External links

; Converters:

Uzbek Cyrillic–Latin converter
Uzbek Cyrillic–Latin text and website converter
Uzbek Latin–Cyrillic text and website converter

; Dictionaries:

Dictionary of the Uzbek Language Volume I (А—Р) (Tashkent, 1981)
Dictionary of the Uzbek Language, Volume II (С—Ҳ) (Tashkent, 1981)
English-Uzbek and Uzbek-English online dictionary
English-Uzbek and Uzbek-English online dictionary
Russian-Uzbek and Uzbek-Russian online dictionary
Uzbek to Persian/Dari Dictionary (Volume 1) Both Latin and Arabic orthography. [PDF] (2007) By Muhammadhalim Yarqin, Tehran, Iran
Uzbek to Persian/Dari Dictionary (Volume 2) Both Latin and Arabic orthography. [PDF] (2007) By Muhammadhalim Yarqin, Tehran, Iran
Uzbek to Persian/Dari Dictionary (Archive) [PDF] by Faizullah Aimaq, Toronto, Canada
Word translator from Southern Uzbek to Farsi
Uzbek<>Turkish dictionary (Pamukkale University)
Ole Olufsen: "A Vocabulary of the Dialect of Bokhara" [https://archive.org/details/avocabularydial00olufgoog] (København 1905)

;Grammar and orthography

Introduction to the Uzbek Language, Mark Dickens
Principal Orthographic Rules For The Uzbek Language, translation of Uzbekistan Cabinet of Minister's Resolution No. 339, of 24 August 1995
Uzbek alphabet, Omniglot

; Learning/teaching materials:

[https://t.me/uzbekcha7], Learn Uzbek (in Russian)
[https://t.me/learn_uzbek_tili], Learn Uzbek (in English)
Ona tili uz, a website about Uzbek
, Uz-Translations

Classification

Number of speakers

Etymology

History

Writing systems

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

Grammar

Nouns

Verbs

Notes

Copula verb

Negation

Gerund

Pronouns

Word order

Influences

Dialects

By country

Turkmenistan

Russia

Uzbek language researchers

Sample text

See also

Notes

References

Sources

External links