Southern Uzbek language

Southern Uzbek, also known as Afghan Uzbek, is the southern variant of the Uzbek language, spoken chiefly in Afghanistan with up to 4.7 million native speakers. It uses the Perso-Arabic writing system in contrast to the language variant of Uzbekistan.

Southern Uzbek
اۉزبېکچه, اۉزبېکی, اۉزبېک تورکچه‌سی
Native to	Afghanistan
Ethnicity	Uzbeks
Native speakers	4.7 million (2023)
Language family	Turkic Common Turkic Karluk Uzbek Southern Uzbek
Early forms	Middle Turkic Khorezmian Turkic Chagatai
Writing system	Perso-Arabic
Official status
Recognised minority language in	China Afghanistan (3rd most spoken language)
Regulated by	Afghan Ministry of Education
Language codes
ISO 639-3	uzs
Glottolog	sout2699
Linguasphere	db 44-AAB-da, db
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Southern Uzbek is intelligible with the Northern Uzbek spoken in Uzbekistan to a certain degree. However, it has differences in grammar and also many more loan words from Dari, the local New Persian variety, in which many Southern Uzbek speakers are proficient; on the other hand, Northern Uzbeks have absorbed loanwords from Russian (in which many Northern Uzbeks are proficient) since their integration to the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union.

Southern Uzbek Alphabet

Southern Uzbek is written using the Perso-Arabic writing system called Arab Yozuv عرب یازوو ("Arab Script"). The writing system is for the most part identical to Persian alphabet, with three additional letters. These include two vowels, "اۉ / ۉ" and "اې / ې" (optional in writing, and substitutable in practice by "او / و" and "ای / ی" respectively), which are meant to represent the sounds represented in Uzbek Latin Script with "E e" and "Oʻ oʻ". The alphabet also includes a combined consonant letter "نگ", formerly (and currently in writing systems such as Uyghur) shown with the letter "ڭ". This letter represents the sound /ŋ/, and represented in the Latin writing system with "-ng". This letter makes the Voiced velar nasal sound, where in English one can for example hear when pronouncing the word "wingman".

Uzbek has six vowels, and it has lost its vowel harmony rules, unlike other Turkic languages.

Table of Vowels in Uzbek Arabic Alphabet (with alif at the beginning of words)

Notes	IPA	Arabic			Latin	Cyrillic	Uzbek Equivalent
		Final	Medial	Initial
	[æ ~ ɑ]	ـَه‎	ـَ‎	اَ‎	A a	А а	[æ ~ ɑ]
	[ɒ ~ ɔ]	ـا‎		آ‎	‌ O o	О о	[ɔ]
	[i]	ـِی‎	ـِیـ‎	اِیـ‎	I i	И и	[i]
In unvocalized spelling, it may be substituted by ی. Final -e is limited to Persian loanwords.	[e]	ـې‎	ـېـ ‎	اېـ‎	E e	Э э / Е е	[e]
Final -e is limited to Persian loanwords. For loanwords from other languages than Persian, ـِه is preferred to transliterate -e.		ـِه‎	N/A	N/A			N/A
Only used in Persian and Arabic loanwords.	[i, e]	N/A	ـِ ‎	اِ‎	I i E e	И и Э э / Е е	N/A
	[u]	ـُو‎		اُو‎	‌ U u	У у	[u]
In unvocalized spelling, it may be substituted by و.	[o]	ـۉ‎		اۉ‎	Oʻ oʻ	Ў ў	[o]
Only used in Persian and Arabic loanwords.	[u, o]	N/A	ـُ‎	اُ‎	U u Oʻ oʻ	У у Ў ў	N/A

Other than the additional combined letter "نگ / -ng", the consonants of Uzbek Arabic Alphabet are identical to that of Persian. Thus, there indeed is a case of various letters representing the same sound, as is the case in Persian. But the letters "ث، ح، ذ، ژ، ص، ض، ط، ظ، ع" are not used for writing of native Uzbek words. They are solely used for writing of loanwords from Arabic, Persian, or any of the European languages.

Letter				Latin	IPA	Uzbek Equivalent
Final	Medial	Initial	Isolated
ـب‎	ـبـ‎	بـ‎	ب‎	B b	/b/
ـپ‎	ـپـ‎	پـ‎	پ‎	P p	/p/
ـت‎	ـتـ‎	تـ‎	ت‎	T t	/t/	/t̪/
ـث‎	ـثـ‎	ثـ‎	ث‎	S s	/s/
ـج‎	ـجـ‎	جـ‎	ج‎	J j	/dʒ/
ـچ‎	ـچـ‎	چـ‎	چ‎	Ch ch	/tʃ/
ـح‎	ـحـ‎	حـ‎	ح‎	H h	/h/
ـخ‎	ـخـ‎	خـ‎	خ‎	X x	/ x~χ /	/χ/
ـد‎		د‎		D d	/d/	/d̪/
ـذ‎		ذ‎		Z z	/z/
ـر‎		ر‎		R r	/r/
ـز‎		ز‎		Z z	/z/
ـژ‎		ژ‎		J j	/ʒ/
ـس‎	ـسـ‎	سـ‎	س‎	S s	/s/
ـش‎	ـشـ‎	شـ‎	ش‎	Sh Sh	/ʃ/
ـص‎	ـصـ‎	صـ‎	ص‎	S s	/s/
ـض‎	ـضـ‎	ضـ‎	ض‎	Z z	/z/
ـط‎	ـطـ‎	طـ‎	ط‎	T t	/t/
ـظ‎	ـظـ‎	ظـ‎	ظ‎	Z z	/z/
ـع‎	ـعـ‎	عـ‎	ع‎	ʻ	/ʔ/
ـغ‎	ـغـ‎	غـ‎	غ‎	Gʻ gʻ	/ ɣ~ʁ /	/ʁ/
ـف‎	ـفـ‎	فـ‎	ف‎	F f	/f/	/ɸ/
ـق‎	ـقـ‎	قـ‎	ق‎	Q q	/q/
ـک‎	ـکـ‎	کـ‎	ک‎	K k	/k/
ـگ‎	ـگـ‎	گـ‎	گ‎	G g	/ɡ/
ـل‎	ـلـ‎	لـ‎‎	ل‎	L l	/l/
ـم‎	ـمـ‎	مـ‎	م‎	M m	/m/
ـن‎	ـنـ‎	نـ‎	ن‎	N n	/n/
ـنگ‎	ـنگـ‎	نگـ‎	نگ‎	-ng	/ŋ/
ـو‎		و‎		V v	/v/	/v~w/
ـه‎	ـهـ‎	هـ‎	ه‎	H h	/h/
ـی‎	ـیـ‎	یـ‎	ی‎	‌ Y y	/j/
-‎	ـئـ / ـأ / ـؤ‎	ئـ / أ / ؤ‎	ء‎	ʻ	/ʔ/

See also

• Chagatai language
• Uzbek literature