Uzbek language

Uzbek is a state language in Uzbekistan. It belongs to the Turkic language group. There are a lot of dialects in the country and it demonstrates the variety of ethnic groups, which formed the Uzbek nation.

The formation of Uzbek literary language covers three historical periods: the ancient Turkic language, ancient Uzbek language, and contemporary Uzbek language. The great scholar and poet of the 15th century Alisher Navoi has significantly contributed to the development of the Uzbek language. The contemporary Uzbek language started to take shape in the beginning of the 20th century.

There are three main dialects in the Uzbek language: karluk, kipcbak, and oguz. Contemporary
Uzbek language has developed upon the basis of dialects spoken in Tashkent and Ferghana.

Uzbek people used the Arabic alphabet until 1927 and then - the Latin script from 1927 to 1938. In 1939 the Cyrillic alphabet came on the scene. In 1994 the Government of Uzbekistan decided to change the Uzbek alphabet into the Latin script again. This process will be completed in 2007. Thus, currently the Uzbek alphabet, based on the Latin script, has 26 letters and 3 letter combinations. The basics of Uzbek vocabulary are mainly composed of common Turkic as well as Uzbek words, which came on the scene based on the former. Uzbek also contains a significant number of international words.