Today we will begin actually learning the mechanisms of the Uzbek language.

Uzbek is a Common Turkic language spoken my approximately 27 million people. The closest language to Uzbek is Uyghur, which is spoken by around 11 million people in northwestern China and has a mutual intelligibility degree of about 70% with Uzbek.

Three different scripts have been used for writing Uzbek throughout history. From the Middle Ages until 1928 it was written exclusively in the Arabic script; afterwards, a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet was introduced, which coincided with the creation of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Latin script was adopted as the primary means of writing the language, and is the most commonly used script today in Uzbekistan. Among Uzbek minorities in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, the Cyrillic alphabet is preferred, and in Afghanistan, the Arabic alphabet is still in use. We will be focusing on Uzbek written in the Latin script.

Spoiler

Pronunciation Guide

"R" is pronounced with a trill
"I" is pronounced as a long E
"J" is pronounced the same as in English
"O" is pronounced like the o in "hot"
"A" is pronounced like the A in "cat" or like "ai"
"Q" is pronounced like a K, but further back in the throat
"X" is pronounced like the CH in "loch"
"U" can be pronounced both like a long or a short U, depending on the word
"Oʻ " is pronounced like the U in "fur"
"Gʻ " is pronounced like an R but further back in the throat
" ʼ " is a glottal stop, such as in "uh-oh"

Additional Tips
• a = [ Ja ] after g and k
• i = [ɨ] in the middle and at the end of words, [ i ] elsewhere
• f = [ p ] in the middle and at the end of words
• q changes to g' when in a two -syllable noun with a genitive pronoun ending, e.g.o'rtoq-Flm > o'rtog'Im
• tis silent when end of a two -syllable word, for example do'st [ do's ], past [ pas ],daraxt [ darax ]
• u = [ Ju ] after g and k• at the end of words, b, v, g, d, z are devoiced
• the apostrophe after a vowel indicates that the vowel is long, e.g.ra'no [ra no ]After a consonant it indicates that the consonant is followed by a brief breath orno sound, e.g.san'at [san=at ]In Russian loanwords it is used to indicate that aconsonant is not have a palatal
• j and v are used in foreign loanwords (mainly from Russian), and in a few native Uzbek words

Word Order

Uzbek uses a Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) grammar system. If English was an SOV language, the sentence "I ate food" would become "I food ate". (In Uzbek, it is Men ovqat eb.)

Adjectives come before nouns: U yosh bola (He young child): He is a young child.

Adverbs come before verbs: U tez gapirdi (He quickly spoke): He spoke quickly.

Interrogatives are placed in the sentence where the answer will go: Bu kim? Bu Verbatim. (This who? This Verbatim): Who is this? This is Verbatim.

Postpositions come after nouns: Biz memet haqida gapirdik (We memes about talked): We talked about memes.

Vocabulary
-U (he)
-tez (quickly)
-biz (we)
-haqida (about)
-gapirdik (talked)
-yosh (young)
-bola (male child)
-eb (ate)
-siz (you)
-oqvat (food)
-ehtiyoj (need)
-ko'rish (see)
-eshitmoq (hear)
-umid (hope)
-menimcha (i think)
-harakat (move)
-hayron (wonder)
-olmoq (take)
-tashqarida (put)
-yer (ground)
-osmon (sky)
-tun (night)
-kun (day)
-uy (house)

Homework

Today, you have homework--using a a recording service, such as www.vocaroo.com, please record yourself reading the following sentence:

Barcha odamlar erkin, qadr-qimmat va huquqlarda teng bo'lib tug'iladilar. (All human beings are born equal in dignity and rights.)


This is due before 11:00 pm today.