ALanguageIndependent states
Uzbek language
The state language of Uzbekistan, of the Karluk branch of Turkic, and the second most widely spoken Turkic language after Turkish.
Uzbek, together with Uyghur, forms the Karluk (south-eastern) branch of Turkic. According to Ethnologue it is the mother tongue of more than 36 million people and is spoken in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and China as well as Uzbekistan.
Literary Uzbek succeeded Chagatai Turkic, the language of Navoi and Babur. Written for centuries in Arabic script, it switched to Latin in the late 1920s and to Cyrillic in 1940; Latin script was officially reintroduced in 1992, and both scripts are now in use.
On 21 October 1989 the Law on the State Language made Uzbek the state language, and since 2020 21 October has been celebrated as Uzbek Language Day.
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Updated: October 3, 2026