Language

The Uzbek flag with the word "til" written on it

Multilingual Uzbekistan

You have probably already learned by now that the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan is extremely multilingual, multiethnic, and multicultural. This diversity may be observed in the variety of languages and language variations spoken within the territory of Uzbekistan. Ethnologue.com lists 32 of these languages, but there are over 100 of them spoken across the country.

Uzbek and Russian are perhaps the most commonly spoken languages in Uzbekistan. Uzbek is the official state language of the country and is used by the government and citizens on a daily basis. There are about 25 million speakers of Uzbek in and outside of Uzbekistan (Azimova, 2010). As a legacy of the Soviet era, Russian is also spoken and understood by the majority and is used in official documents too. Most of the older generation in Uzbekistan regardless of their ethnic origins would probably be more comfortable with using Russian. On the other hand, the younger generation raised in independent Uzbekistan uses Uzbek more and more often in their daily lives.

Tajik, Kazakh, Korean, Armenian, Tatar, Karakalpak and Turkish are some of the other widely used languages in the country. Certain cities of Uzbekistan such as Bukhara and Samarkand are predominantly Tajik speaking cities. Tajik is a Farsi (Persian)-based language spoken officially in the neighboring Republic of Tajikistan. Another Tajik-based language spoken by the Jewish population in these cities is known as Bukhori (or Bukharic), which has Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and Uzbek origins and is an endangered language of Uzbekistan. The majority of the speakers of Bukhori reside in Queens, NY. The language families represented in Uzbekistan’s linguistic make-up are the Turkic, Latin, Slavic, Germanic, and East-Asian language families.

Because of its long history with multilingualism, it is quite natural for the majority of citizens of Uzbekistan to speak two or more languages. For example, Uyghur families in Tashkent often speak Uyghur, Uzbek, and Russian, whereas Tajik families in Samarkand would often speak Tajik along with Uzbek and Russian. In informal domains of life, a number of these languages are used simultaneously or depending on the interlocutor. In more formal domains such as school and state agencies, Uzbek and Russian would be used more frequently. For instance, schooling in Uzbekistan is primarily offered in Uzbek and/or Russian with English being taught as a foreign language from the first grade. There are no strict rules towards adherence to certain languages in school and you may observe students mixing languages in and outside of the classroom.  Many young people speak some English, but it is not a daily language in Uzbekistan yet.

Often, people who are interested in the region learn Uzbek and Russian languages to get by. A number of languages spoken in Uzbekistan are offered by various language and regional programs in the United States. When you become a college student, you might want to check out some of these programs if you are excited about learning new languages and cultures!

A list of the universities in the US that offer Uzbek can be found at the bottom of this page.

The Uzbek Language

The Uzbek language is a part of the Turkic group of languages, which in turn is a part of the Altaic language family. Within the Turkic group, which comprises Turkish, Uyghur, Kazakh, Tatar, and Kyrghyz, Uzbek belongs to the Qarluq branch. Its former version, old Uzbek or Chagatay, also known as Turki, was used during Tamerlane’s rule and later was popularized through literary works of the famous poet Alisher Navoiy. Nowadays, it is not only spoken by people within the territory of Uzbekistan, but also by minority populations in the neighboring Central Asian states, (especially in southern Kazakhstan, north and western Tajikistan, southwestern Kyrgyzstan and northern Afghanistan), labor migrants in Eastern Europe and East Asia, as well as Uzbek diasporas in these and other regions of the world. For example, there is a large population of Uzbek speakers in the United States with the majority residing in New York. There is a new Facebook group named “Uzbek diaspora” on Facebook.

As an agglutinative language, Uzbek words have distinctive morphemes and suffixes, which are attached to the word stem in a specific order. This way of building words and sentences can result in very long one-word sentences. For instance, “Are you American?” would be “Amerika+lik+mi+siz+lar -> Amerikalikmisizlar?” As you can notice, four distinctive suffixes are added to the word “Amerika” to construct a question. Because standardized Uzbek was developed based on the Eastern dialects of Uzbekistan, modern Uzbek does not have vowel harmony, which is a distinctive feature of Turkic languages. However, it retained consonant harmony in certain words where the dative suffix is added. The stress in Uzbek usually falls on the last syllable of the word and the word order is subject -> object -> verb.

For example: In Uzbek, we say->O’zbekiston<- the stress is on the bolded syllabus.

I live in Uzbekistan -> Men O’zbekistonda yashayman

I      Uzbekistan/in  live/I

In the sentence above, you may observe that the conjugated verb “live” comes at the end of the sentence. Similar to the Spanish language, the verb when conjugated takes a personal ending (highlighted). The object of the sentence “in Uzbekistan” comes before the verb and the preposition “in” (highlighted) is attached to “O’zbekiston”.

There are regional varieties of Uzbek spoken across the country. While the standardized language is based on the variety spoken in Tashkent and the Ferghana Valley and is used in mass media and printed resources, the other two dialects, Oghuz and Qipchoq, are spoken in western Uzbekistan and central Uzbekistan. Because people speak other languages in certain regions of the country, their spoken Uzbek may have more borrowings or be influenced to a much greater extent by another locally spoken language.

You might encounter Uzbek speakers who at times feel conflicted with regard to the spelling of certain words that have Russian sounds or Turkic sounds that do not exist in Russian. That is because the Uzbek language was written in a number of alphabets before its current one. Initially written in Arabic script, Uzbek was then written using the Latin script between 1927 and 1940. This was followed by the adoption of the Cyrillic alphabet for the Uzbek language. Only in 1993 did the government of an independent Uzbekistan re-introduce the Latin alphabet. These are crucial processes that have affected decisions about how certain loanwords and original Turkic or Arabic words in Uzbek should be written. For example, the word “mehmonxona” means “guesthouse or hotel”. With the adoption of the Latin alphabet, the “h” sound was re-introduced. This sound does not exist in Russian and therefore, many hotels built during the Soviet period have the signage spelled as “mexmonxona”. The current generation typically does not know the Arabic script. The older and middle-aged generation in Uzbekistan often prefers to read and write Uzbek in the Cyrillic alphabet, whereas the younger generation born following the collapse of the Soviet Union is comfortable using both Cyrillic and Latin scripts. The Latin script is taught in primary and secondary education and used in higher education as well. At the same time, Cyrillic script Uzbek is still used in newspapers, university preparation tests and older textbooks. Outside of Uzbekistan, Uzbek communities living in Afghanistan still use the Arabic script.

The Uzbek language is heavily influenced by the Persian, Arabic and Russian languages. Through the Russian language, a number of international words such as garage → garaj, telephone → telefon, and airport → aeroport have entered Uzbek. To compare the Uzbek language with other world languages, check out the following informative and interactive videos:

Let’s Learn Some Uzbek!

Before we move forward to learning words and phrases, let’s look at the letter sounds in the modern Uzbek alphabet that do not exist in English:

  • Q – you may think that it is a regular ‘q’ as in ‘barbeQue’ sound. However, in Uzbek it is pronounced differently. The sound is a voice glottal stop.
  • X – the way this letter is pronounced is similar to the ‘x’ sound in the Russian language. It’s a voiced ‘h’.
  • O’ – this is a Turkic sound, which exists neither in English nor in Russian, and it’s pronounced with rounded lips protruded forward.
  • G’ – another Turkic sound, which is also a glottal consonant.
  • Ng – this letter comes up in many Uzbek phrases, however it never starts a word.
  • ’ – an apostrophe suggests a stop within the word as in “ma’no”, which means “meaning” in Uzbek. It is common in words of Arabic origin and represents the letter ayn ع.

To listen to the pronunciation of these sounds, check out the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGavr796HTc.

Some common phrases that you might want to know when encountering Uzbek speakers are:

  • Assalom – Hello
  • Yaxshimisiz? – Are you doing well?/How are you?
  • Rahmat, yaxshiman. – Thank you, I am fine.
  • Kechirasiz – Excuse me
  • Katta rahmat – Thank you very much
  • Ha – yes
  • Yo’q – No
  • Mening ismim … – My name is …
  • Men – I
  • Sen – you (informal)
  • Siz – You (respectful singular/plural)
  • U – He, She, it
  • Biz – We
  • Ular – They
  • Chiroyli – beautiful
  • Kelishgan – handsome
  • Qiz – girl
  • Ayol – woman
  • O’g’il bola – boy
  • Yigit – young guy
  • Erkak – man

The Sound of the Uzbek language (Numbers, Greetings & The Parable).

Here is a resource for learning Uzbek independently: http://teachyourselfuzbek.com/resources/dictionaries/.

Suggested Learning Activities

Activity 1

Here is a short introduction in Uzbek that you can fill out with the information that pertains to you. Replace the highlighted words with your details:

Assalom. Mening ismim Sam. Men Amerikalikman. Men Wisconsin shtatining Madison shahrida yashayman. Men o’zbek tilini yaxshi ko’raman.

Translation: My name is Sam. I am American. I live in Madison, Wisconsin. I like the Uzbek language.

Note to Instructors: Have your students write out this short introduction and fill in the blank or print out the following text:

Assalom. Mening ismim ____(add your name). Men ______(add your country) likman. Men _______(add your state) shtatining ________(add your city) shahrida yashayman. Men ________(add a language) tilini yaxshi ko’raman.

Activity 2

You have probably heard Luis Fonsi’s song “Despacito”. Uzbek singers have also taken a stab at singing the song in Uzbek. Check out this funny video in which you can also see the capital city of Tashkent and its mountainous regions. A popular Uzbek salsa community is also featured in the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e09R19dbA9w.

Would you like to sing along? Here are the lyrics!

Seni uchratgan kundan boshimni yo’qotib

Sensiz qoldim go‘yo be qaror

Sen hayolinga ham keltira olmaysan

Uyqusiz man tunlarim bedor

 

U ishlarini tashlab qo’yganman

Ishhonamda esa hayol suraman

Yoningda bo‘lishni orzu qilaman

Men uyingga sovchilarni yuboraman

Istagan narsangni bajo qilaman

Samodan yulduzni olib beraman

 

Sen parisan

ko‘ngil dilimning oromi san Nafisa

Ko‘ngil hushimni o‘g‘irlagan parisan

Falakdan yerga tushgan farishtasan

 

Sen parisan

Seni deb yuragim uradi Nafisam

Umrbod bo‘lsang edi meni malikam

Hayotimni sen uchun bag‘ishlayman

 

Qani edi meni huddi menga

o‘hshab sevganingda

Parvona bo‘lganingda

devona bo‘lganingda

Ushalar esa orzuyim menga

ko‘ngil qo‘yganinda

Agar rozi bo‘lganingda

rozi bo‘lganingda…

 

Bitta diplomi ham baribir

Malibusiga ham baribir

Shahzodangni kutsang baribir

Unashgan bo‘lsang ham baribir

Agar ota-onang bizga

qarshi tursa ham ham

Agar meni beshta akalaring ursa kam kam

Qoshi qaro ko‘zlaring

ko‘z oldimdan ketmaydi

Sehir-sehirli tabassuming

esdan chiqmaydi

Seni unutishni o‘zi ham juda istardim

Lekin telba lablarim

takror takror aytadi

 

Parisan parisan

Majnuning man Nafisa

Dil oromi o‘zingsan

Qalb o‘g‘risi o’zisan

Bag‘rimga bosay desam

Bir bo‘sa olay desam

Farishta san Nafisa

O‘zga sayyoralisan

 

Parisan parisan

Majnuning man Nafisa

Dil oromi o‘zingsan

Qalb o‘g‘risi o’zisan

Bag‘rimga bosay desam

Bir bo‘sa olay desam

Farishta san Nafisa

O‘zga sayyoralisan

Sen parisan

ko‘ngil dilimning oromisan Nafisa

Ko‘ngil hushimni o‘g‘irlagan parisan

Falakdan yerga tushgan farishtasan

 

Sen parisan

Seni deb yuragim uradi Nafisam

Umrbod bo‘lsang edi meni malikam

Hayotimni sen uchun bag‘ishlayman

 

Qani edi meni huddi menga

o‘xshab sevganingda

Parvona bo‘lganingda

devona bo‘lganingda

Ushalar esa orzuyim menga

ko‘ngil qo‘yganinda

Agar rozi bo‘lganingdaa

rozi bo‘lganingda

 

Sen parisan

Jonu dilimning oromi san Nafisa

Ko‘ngil hushimni o‘girlagan parisan

Falakdan yerga tushgan farishtasan

 

Parisan parisan

Majnuning man Nafisa

Dil oromi o‘zingsan

Qalb o‘g‘risi uzi san

Parvona bo‘lganingda

Devona bo‘lganingda

 

Parisan parisan

Majnuning man Nafisa

Dil oromi o‘zingsan

Qalb o‘g‘risi o’zi san

Agar rozi bo‘ganinda

Rozi bo‘lganingda

Sen parisan

References

Further Useful References