Turkic · ISO 639-3 uzs
Southern Uzbek Language اوزبیک تورکچه
Southern Uzbek is a Turkic language spoken by about 4.2 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Perso-Arabic script.
Where Southern Uzbek is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Southern Uzbek
About the Southern Uzbek language
Southern Uzbek (اوزبیک تورکچه) is spoken by about 4.2 million people, which makes it the 203rd most spoken language in the world — just behind Tichurong (4.2 million) and ahead of Gheg Albanian (4.1 million). It belongs to the Turkic language family and, more precisely, to the Uzbek group within the Kipchak-Turkestan branch.
Where is Southern Uzbek spoken?
Southern Uzbek is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Afghanistan (4.2 million).
Southern Uzbek is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Southern Uzbek is written in the Perso-Arabic script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Northern Uzbek, Uighur, Uzbek, Kazakh, Tatar, Kirghiz and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 uzs.
Frequently asked questions about Southern Uzbek
How many people speak Southern Uzbek?
Where is Southern Uzbek spoken?
What language family does Southern Uzbek belong to?
What is Southern Uzbek called in Southern Uzbek?
Is Southern Uzbek an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.