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Sydney Language Festival 2015Uzbek

Alan R. Libert, University of NewcastleAlan.Libert@newcastle.edu.au

I. Context

(http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/cia15/uzbekistan_sm_2015.gif)

There are also speakers of Russian and Tajik in Uzbekistan, and Karakalpak is an official language of Karakalpakstan (an “autonomous” republic). The Uzbeks are an official minority in China.

Altaic (also includes Mongolian and Tungusic languages and perhaps Korean and Japanese)Turkic (also includes Turkish, Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Tuvan, Bashkir, Crimean Tatar, etc.)

Southeastern Turkic (also includes Uyghur)

Uzbek literature:

Navoi (1441-1501) (wrote in Chagatay/Old Uzbek)(http://www.ziyouz.uz/en/uzbek-literature/38-literature-of-temurids-period/63-alisher-navoi-1441-1501)

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II. Writing SystemArabic Alphabet until 1930 (two versions: 1) 1865-1923 and 2) 1923-1930, below is the 2nd):

Arabic alphabet for Uzbek ( الفباسى (ئۇزبېك

(http://www.omniglot.com/writing/uzbek.htm)

Latin alphabet 1930-1940 (two versions, 1) 1930-1934, and 2) 1934-1940)

Cyrillic alphabet 1940 - (a minor change in 1956)

Cyrillic alphabet for Uzbek (ўзбек алифбоси)

(http://www.omniglot.com/

writing/uzbek.htm)

Latin alphabet 1990s -

(http://www.languagesgulper.com/eng/Uzbek.html)

III. Phonetics/PhonologyUnlike most Turkic languages, there are dialects of Uzbek, including the literary variety, which do not have vowel harmony, e.g. Тошкентда ‘in Tashkent’ (cf. Turkish Taşkent'te).

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Like Turkish, usually stress is on the last syllable.

IV. LexiconMany words borrowed from Russian (e.g. закон ‘law’), and earlier (like Turkish) from Arabic (e.g. arava ‘wagon, cart’) and Persian (e.g. tuman ‘mist, fog, haze).

V. Morphology (Word Structure)Uzbek is an agglutinative language (lots of suffixes), sometimes Uzbek words are equivalent to English sentences, e.g. Oshxonadaman ‘I am in the kitchen’.

Unlike French and German, there is no gender, even in pronouns (e.g. u ‘he, she, it’)

6 cases (some of which are equivalent to English prepositions): davlat ‘state’:nominative: davlataccusative: davlat-nigenitive: davlat-ningdative: davlat-galocative: davlat-daablative: davlat-dan(http://turkishuzbek.weebly.com/nouns-cases.html)

Many verb forms, e.g. o'qimoq ‘to read’, demoq ‘to say’ (note that no pronoun is necessary):

Present Contin. Pres. Contin. Negative another Pres. Contin. (lit.) yet another Pres. 1 I o'qiyapman o'qimayapman o’qiyotirman o'qimoqdamanyou (sg.) o'qiyapsan o'qimayapsan o’qiyotirsan o'qimoqdasanhe/she/it o'qiyapti o'qimayapti o’qiyotir o'qimoqdawe o'qiyapmiz o'qimayapmiz o’qiyotirmiz o'qimoqdamizyou (pl.) o'qiyapsiz o'qimayapsiz o’qiyotirsiz o'qimoqdasizthey o'qimayaptilar o'qimayaptilar o’qiyotirlar o'qimoqdalar(largely from http://turkishuzbek.weebly.com/present-tense.html)

-- di-past: dedi ‘he said’ -- past subjective: degan(dir) ‘he said’ (“The past subjective expresses an action in the past with the implication that it is not certain that the action did occur” (Poppe 1962:36))-- “past tense of inference of hearsay” (Poppe 1962:53): qilibman ‘(it seems, they say that) I did, have done’ (ibid.:36)) (“describes reported actions, or actions the occurrence of which is inferred by the speaker” (ibid.:35)

causatives and double causatives: kech- 'to ford' - kech-ir- 'to make ford' - kech-ir-tir- 'to cause to make ford' (Kulikov 1999:51).

VI. Syntax (Phrase and Sentence StructureUzbek is an SOV language (i.e. its basic order is subject-object-verb; English is SVO).

Uzbek has postpositions rather than prepositions, e.g. mening uchun ‘for me’.

1 “This tense expresses an action in the present which takes place over a period of time, although not necessarily at the present moment.” (Poppe 1962:29)

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Like Turkish, Uzbek has the izafet construction, e.g. O’zbekiston Respublikasi ‘The Republic of Uzbekistan’

VII. Let’s Practice Uzbek!

Salom ‘Hello’Xayrli tong ‘Good morning’Xayrli tun ‘Good night’(Katta) rahmat ‘Thank you (very much)’Ismingiz nima? ‘What is your name?’Tanishganimdan xursandman ‘I am pleased to meet you’Qayerdasiz? ‘Where are you?’

and a little in Cyrillic:

Салом ‘Hello’Ош едим ‘I ate pilau’ (Waterson 1980:84) (note the absence of a pronoun and of accusative marking)

Bibliography

Doniyorova, Saodat (2001) Parlons ouzbek. L’Harmattan, Paris.

Ismatulla, Khayrulla (1995) Modern Literary Uzbek I. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.

Johanson, Lars and Éva Ágnes Csató (eds.) (1998) The Turkic Languages. Routledge, Abington, Oxfordshire.

Kulikov, Leonid (1999) “Remarks on Double Causatives in Tuvan and Other Turkic languages”. Journal de la Societe Finno-Ougrienne 88:49-58.

Poppe, Nicholas, Jr. (1962) Uzbek Newspaper Reader. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.

Raun, Alo (1969) Basic Course in Uzbek. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.

Waterson, Natalie (1980) Uzbek-English Dictionary. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Yaman, Ertuğrul (2005) Özbek Türkçesinde Edatlar. Gazi Kitabevi, Ankara.