Uzbek alphabet

 ( Alphabets Used By Turkic Languages ) 

In 1940, Uzbek was switched to the Cyrillic script under Joseph Stalin:

The Uzbek Cyrillic alphabet contains all the letters of the Russian alphabet, apart from Щ and Ы, plus four extra ones, namely Ў, Қ, Ғ and Ҳ. These four letters are considered as separate letters and not letter variants. They come in alphabetical order after the letter Я.

The letters Ц and Ь are not used in Uzbek native words, but are included in the alphabet for writing loanwords, e. g. кальций (calcium). However, Щ and Ы are not included, so they are replaced by ШЧ and И in loanwords and names from Russian, e. g. the Russian surnames Щедрин (Shchedrin) and Быков (Bykov) are rendered Шчедрин and Биков in Uzbek Cyrillic.

Despite further reforms, this alphabet is still in use both in Uzbekistan and neighboring countries (Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan).

Until 1992, Uzbek in the USSR continued to be written using a Cyrillic alphabet almost exclusively, but now in Uzbekistan the Latin script has been officially re-introduced, although the use of Cyrillic is still widespread. The deadline in Uzbekistan for making this transition has been repeatedly changed. In 1993, President of Uzbekistan at the time Islam Karimov proposed a new Uzbek alphabet with ⟨c⟩ /ts/, ⟨ç⟩, ⟨ğ⟩, ⟨ɉ⟩, ⟨ñ⟩, ⟨ö⟩, ⟨ş⟩, until it was replaced with the current 1995 alphabet. The letter J with stroke is said to have been the equivalent of Cyrillic letter Zhje. The order of the first Latin alphabet post-independence was as follows: A a, B b, C c, D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p, Q q, R r, S s, T t, U u, V v, X x, Y y, Z z, Ç ç, Ğ ğ, Ɉ ɉ, Ñ ñ, Ö ö, Ş ş, ʼ.

Education in many areas of Uzbekistan is in the Latin script, and in 2001 the Latin script began to be used on Uzbekistani soum. Since 2004, some official websites have switched over to using the Latin script when writing in Uzbek. Most street signs are also in the new Latin script. The main national TV channel of Uzbekistan, Oʻzbekiston Telekanali (owned by MTRK), has also switched to the Latin script when writing in Uzbek, although news programs are still broadcast in Cyrillic script (compare with another TV channel owned by the same company, Yoshlar, which broadcasts news programs in Latin script). Additionally, in Afghanistan Uzbek continues to be written in the Arabic script.

In 2018, the Uzbek government launched another reform effort for the Uzbek Latin alphabet. The new proposal called for replacing some digraphs with . In March 2021, the proposed changes were put up for public discussion and debate. They called for replacing Ch ch, Sh sh, Gʻ gʻ, Oʻ oʻ with Ç ç, Ş ş, Ḡ ḡ, Ō ō (and, in loans, Ts ts with C c). This would largely reverse the 1995 reform and bring the orthography closer to those of Turkish alphabet, Turkmen alphabet, Karakalpak, Kazakh alphabets (2018 version) and Azerbaijani. This was met with mixed reactions from the citizens. The proposal was put up again for discussion in May of the same year, this time with a deadline of 1 November 2021.

In February 2021, the Uzbek government announced that Uzbekistan plans to fully transition the Uzbek language from the Cyrillic script to a Latin-based alphabet by 1 January 2023. Uzbekistan Aims For Full Transition To Latin-Based Alphabet By 2023, February 12, 2021 12:54 GMT, RadioFreeEurope Similar deadlines had been extended several times.

Generally the younger generation prefers to use the Latin alphabet, while the older generation, who grew up in the Soviet era, prefers the Cyrillic alphabet. The Latin alphabet is mainly used in business and tourism, and the Cyrillic alphabet is mainly used in official government documents.

According to a report in 2023, Uzbek publishing houses still mostly used the Cyrillic alphabet.

In September 2023, linguists proposed another project for reform of the Latin alphabet. Thus, in the new alphabet it is proposed to modify four letters: Ў/ў, Ғ/ғ, Ч/ч, & Ш/ш respectively to Õ/õ, Ğ/ğ, C/c, Ş/ş. This is the third attempt to reform the Uzbek alphabet since 2018.

The symbol ⟨‘⟩ does not constitute a separate letter.

The Cyrillic letters Ё ё, Ю ю, Я я correspond to the sound combinations yo, yu, ya.

The Cyrillic letters Ц ц and ь (capital Ь occurs only in all-capitals writing), called (t)se and yumshatish belgisi respectively, are used only in loanwords. In the modern Uzbek Latin alphabet ц becomes ts after vowels, s otherwise; ь is omitted (except ье, ьи, ьо, that become ye, yi, yo).

The letters c (apart from the digraph ch) and w, not considered distinct letters of the Uzbek alphabet, are named (t)se and dubl-ve respectively. In mathematics, x, y, z are named iks, igrek, zet.

Notes