Uzbek language

Uzbek (Ўзбекча, Ўзбек тили; Perso-Arabic script: اۉزبېکچە, اۉزبېک تیلی, ozˈbekt͡ʃæ; ozˈbek tɯˈlɯ), formerly known as Turki, is a Turkic language spoken by Uzbeks. It is the official, and national language of Uzbekistan. Uzbek is spoken as either native or second language by 44 million people around the world (L1+L2), making it the second-most widely spoken Turkic language after Turkish. There are two major variants of the Uzbek language, Northern Uzbek spoken in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and China and Southern Uzbek spoken in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Uzbek belongs to the Eastern Turkic or Karluk branch of the Turkic language family. External influences include Arabic, Persian and Russian. One of the most noticeable distinctions of Uzbek from other Turkic languages is the rounding of the vowel ɑ to ɔ, a phoneme that was shared by neighbouring Tajik, a variety of the Persian language. Unlike other Turkic languages, vowel harmony is almost completely lost in modern Standard Uzbek, though it is still observed to some degree in its dialects, as well as in its sister Karluk language Uyghur. Nevertheless, the significant influence of Kazakh (a Kipchak Turkic language) makes Uzbek markedly distinct from Uyghur with regard to some grammatical aspects. Apart from Kipchak influences, Uzbek also shows some features from Oghuz group (for example, in its grammar) and Persian, all of which gives Uzbek an 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. Turkic languages Uzbek is a member of the Karluk languages, a sub-group of Turkic languages, belonging to the western branch, while the eastern variety carries the name Uyghur. Since the family is classified to be a dialect continuum, it can be noted that it is found to be the most suitable variety or dialect to be understood by the most number of various Turkic language speakers, despite it being heavily Persianized, excluding the Siberian Turkic languages.