Uzbeklanguage

Uzbek language, or O‘zbekcha, is a Turkic language of the Karluk branch spoken primarily in Uzbekistan and surrounding Central Asian regions. It is the most widely spoken language in Uzbekistan and serves as the principal language of education, government, and media. Estimates of native speakers commonly range from about 32 to 40 million, with a larger total including second-language speakers and the diaspora.

Classification and varieties: Uzbek belongs to the Turkic language family, in the Karluk subgroup that also includes Uyghur. It has two main regional dialect groups, Northern Uzbek and Southern Uzbek, with the standard language largely based on central dialects around Tashkent.

Writing system and history: Uzbek has used several scripts over time. It was historically written with Arabic script for religious and literary texts. During the Soviet era, Cyrillic became widespread. Since the 1990s, Uzbekistan has promoted a Latin-based Uzbek alphabet, which is now the official script, although Cyrillic remains in use among some older speakers and in certain institutions.

Linguistic features: Uzbek is an agglutinative language with extensive suffixation and vowel harmony. It typically follows a subject–object–verb word order and uses postpositions rather than prepositions. The language generally lacks grammatical gender, and possession and case are expressed through affixes.

Lexicon and influence: The vocabulary blends native Turkic roots with borrowings from Persian, Arabic, and Russian, reflecting historical cultural and political contacts in the region. Uzbek is also spoken by communities in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and among the Uzbek diaspora.