#unknown languages

[qupritsuvwix]

7,000 known languages on this planet! And half are down to a very few speakers.

This is mind-boggling to me. I barely speak one language and understand a few words of three or four others.

7,000 languages! Some without alphabets, dictionaries or collected literature, so no online access or libraries. Some have never been “taught”. You live in that area, you talk like that.

Seven Thousand ways of saying, “Hello” and “why are you doing that?”

Thirty five hundred ways of saying, “Goodbye”.

[langurikas-blog]

Uzbek Masterpost

So I haven’t seen many, if any, langblrs posting about learning the Uzbek language. For those who don’t know, Uzbekistan is a central Asian nation that borders almost all the -Stan countries. Uzbek is a Turkic language and is spoken by 27 million native speakers. If you speak Turkish, you’ll pick it up pretty quickly.

However, Uzbek does use the Cyrillic alphabet like it’s Russian counterpart.

Because it’s a relatively unknown language I thought I’d help anyone who wants to learn out and put some resources here.

http://www.ozodlik.org/

I can’t stress how helpful Ozodlik (which means freedom) is for learning. They have a bunch of podcasts, the news and it’s a branch of Radio Free/Radio Liberty. The actual site is blocked in Uzbekistan itself though.

http://www.ismanov.com/

English/Uzbek dictionary, also has Uzbek/Arabic and even the Turkmen language, bonus. It’s very useful considering there are very little actual paper Uzbek dictionaries available.

 if you, like me, prefer a physical dictionary I reccomend;

Uzbek-English / English-Uzbek Concise Dictionary by Kamran M. Khakimov

Because it’s in an easy to read format and has a ton of entries, at least a lot for a dictionary of such a little-spoken language.

https://cails.languageinstitute.wisc.edu/lessons.html

Some content based lessons that mainly focus on issues in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, but useful none-the-less. They’re all written by professors so they should be relatively good translation wise.

http://www.oxuscom.com/250words.htm

More further information about Uzbek as a language, including a word list and a bunch of other goodies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95FeRJl6QtA

If you want to watch another foreigner speaking Uzbek, this is one of the few videos of such around on the internet.

http://aboutworldlanguages.com/uzbek

Useful information about the different Uzbek dialects, since there are two that slightly differ (but are mutually intelligible).

teachyourselfuzbek.com/

Lessons! Teach yourself! O wonder!

www.17-minute-world-languages.com/en/uzbek/

17 minutes and you could learn the 50 most ‘important’ Uzbek words and phrases!

Also as a warning, Uzbek doesn’t have many good movies or music to listen to/watch so if you want any good ones you’ll have to go digging, or just put up with the old Soviet Union ones. Not that there are many of them either. The Uzbek government also blocked Rap and Rock music because they’re ‘evil’ so you’ll struggle to find those genres as well.

And here are some Uzbek phrases to get you going:

Greeting - Uchrashuv, salomlashuv Hello! - Assalomu alaykum! Good afternoon! - Salom! (More of an informal Hi than anything) Hi! - Qalaysiz! Welcome! - Xush kelibsiz! Sir - Janob Madam - Xonim Sit down, please - Marhamat, o'tiring Who are you? - Kimsiz? What is your name? - Ismingiz nima? Let me introduce myself. I'm... - Ruxsat eting, o'zimni tanishtiray. Men... May I introduce myself! I am... - Sizga o'zimni tanishtirsam. Mening ismim... I am glad to meet you! - Tanishganimdan hursandman! How do you do? - Ishlaringiz qalay? How do you feel? - Qalaisiz? Tuzukmisiz? Is everything all right (OK)? - Hammasi joyidami? Thank you, fine - Rahmat, yaxshi Very well, thank you - Juda yaxshi, rahmat Fine, thanks - Rahmat, yaxshi I am OK, thanks - Yaxshiman, rahmat So so - Sekin-sekin Where do you come from? - Qayerdan siz? I come from... - Men... dan keldim I am from United States - Men Amerikadanman 

More phrases can be found at;

https://orexca.com/uzbek_language.shtml 

http://uzbek-glossary.com

This is my first langblr post so if you re-posted ir or whatever it is on tumblr I’d be eternally greaful! Help other Uzbek learners out! Bring attention to this beautiful language and fascinating country!