Learning Uzbek at University of Chicago

Why Study Uzbek?

Today, Uzbekistan is the most populous and dynamic of the former Soviet Central Eurasian republics, and is a destination for a great deal of investment from the US, Europe, Japan, Korea and China. Uzbekistan, like Turkey, has firmly and actively allied itself with the United States in the most recent war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, and maintains a pro-Western, progressive outlook in global affairs.

Diverse employment opportunities for Uzbek-speaking U.S. nationals are currently at an all-time high, and exceptionally well remunerated. The University of Chicago is one of only four universities in the United States where the language is offered.

About the Uzbek Language

Uzbek is a Turkic language spoken in Central Eurasia by approximately 30 million people, primarily in the Republic of Uzbekistan, and by Uzbek minority populations in the neighboring Xinjiang Province of China, as well as in Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, and in the Northern part of Afghanistan.

Uzbek is closely related to Uyghur, the language of the Uyghur people of northwestern China, as well as to Kazak, Kyrgyz, Tatar, Turkmen, and to the Turkish spoken in Turkey. In fact, Uzbek is the Uzbek is the second most widely spoken Turkic language in the world after Turkey Turkish. The degree of mutual intelligibility between these languages is high. A person schooled in Uzbek is able to communicate without great difficulty with other Turkic speakers from Central Eurasia and even from Turkey.

The History of Uzbek

Uzbek is the modern heir to the classical Chagatai language that served as a lingua franca in medieval Central Eurasia, and was used by the Timurids (Tamerlane) and the Moghuls. Like Ottoman Turkish, Chagatai was written in the Arabic script, and contained a great number of Arabic and Persian words. Modern Uzbek retains much of this vocabulary, but like modern Turkish, it has adopted a number of words of western origin in the last century. Uzbek was written exclusively in the Cyrillic script until recently, but this script is now being phased out in favor of the Latin script, officially adopted in 1995.

Uzbek, and its classical ancestor Chagatai, possess a rich and ancient literature dating back a millenium, and more if one considers Old Turkic to be a direct ancestor of modern Uzbek. This literture includes epics, poetry, philosophical, theological and didactic works, as well as scientific treatises. The poet Ali Shir Navoi is the Uzbek Shakespeare, and the area currently comprising Uzbekistan was home to the astronomer Ulugh Bek, grandson of Timur and inventor of the modern observatory, to the great doctors Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Al-Farabi, and to the mathematician Ibn Rushd (Averroes), to name a few. Modern Uzbek society is one in which novelists and poets have abounded and occupied positions of great authority, which partially explains the tragic persecution they suffered at the hands of the Soviets in the 20th Century.

Uzbek at the University of Chicago

Professor Kagan Arik, a specialist in Central Eurasian Languages and Civilizations, has taught Uzbek at the University of Chicago since September 2000. The courses include First and Second year levels. First year is taught five days a week, and second year is arranged, and includes regular meetings with native conversation partners. Both levels include weekly viewing of Uzbek television and films. Students who have interest in Central Eurasia, or in Turkish and Turkic studies are particularly encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity. Students of Turkish, Arabic and Persian will also find Uzbek, with its numerous cognates and loanwords, to be a very approachable first or second Turkic language to learn.