An Altaic language and a member of the Turkic branch, spoken by c. 18 million people mainly in Uzbekistan, where it is an official language, as well as in neighbouring parts of Kazakhstan, KIrghyzstan/Kyrghyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, with some further speakers in Russia, Ukraine, China and other countries.
A literary tradition dates from the 9th century. One of the most distinguished figures was the writer Alishir Nava'i (1441-1501), considered to be the 'father of the Uzbek culture'. Today, Uzbek is spoken in two main dialects, northern and southern, the latter being quite distinct and spoken predominantly in Afganistan and Turkey.
Uzbek was written in the Arabic script till 1927. After a short period during which the Roman alphabet was used, Cyrillic has become the predominantly used alphabet since 1940.
| Courses | |
| Marhamat : Uzbek coursebook for beginners | UZB CBEG 1(PACK) |
| Uzbek : an elementary textbook = O'zbek tili : birinchi bosqich | UZB CBEG 2(PACK) |
| Dictionaries | |
| Dictionary of the Turkic languages : English : Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tatar, Turkish, Turkmen, Uighur, Uzbek (Shelved under Turkic) | TURK DICO 3 |
| The most essential words of Uzbek : a word list for beginners | UZB DICO 1 |
| Uzbek-English English-Uzbek dictionary Hippocrene concise dictionary | UZB DICO 3 |
| Uzbek : Uzbek-English, English-Uzbek dictionary & phrasebook | UZB DICO 2 |
| Documentaries | |
| Holidays in the Danger Zone : Meet the stans : Uzbekistan | UZB DOCU 1(DVD) |