Editing Uzbek language (section)

== History ==
Turkic speakers probably settled the [[Amu Darya]], [[Syr Darya]] and [[Zarafshon]] river basins from at least 600–650 AD, gradually ousting or assimilating the speakers of the [[Eastern Iranian languages]] who previously inhabited [[Sogdia]], [[Bactria]] and [[Khwarazm]]. The first Turkic dynasty in the region was that of the [[Kara-Khanid Khanate]] from the 9th–12th centuries,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ooo-perevod.ru/news/uzbekskiy.html |title=The Origins of the Uzbek Language |access-date=5 January 2013 |language=ru |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130902021401/http://www.ooo-perevod.ru/news/uzbekskiy.html |archive-date=2 September 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> a confederation of [[Karluks]], [[Chigils]], [[Yagma]], and other tribes.<ref name="sinor">{{citation|last = Golden|first = Peter. B.|chapter =Chapter 13 – The Karakhanids and Early Islam|year = 1990|title = The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia|editor-last = Sinor|editor-first = Denis|publisher = Cambridge University Press|isbn = 0-521-24304-1}}</ref>

Uzbek (along with Uyghur) can be considered the direct descendant of Chagatai, the language of great Turkic Central Asian literary development in the realm of [[Chagatai Khan]], [[Timur]] (Tamerlane), and the [[Timurid dynasty]]<ref name="allworth">{{cite book |title=Central Asia: 130 Years of Russian Dominance, a Historical Overview |last=Allworth |first=Edward |year=1994 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=0-8223-1521-1 |pages=72 }}</ref> (including the early Mughal rulers of the [[Mughal Empire]]). Chagatai contained large numbers of Persian and Arabic [[loanword]]s. By the 19th century, it was rarely used for literary composition and disappeared only in the early 20th century.

[[Muhammad Shaybani]] ({{circa|1451}} – 2 December 1510), the first [[Khanate of Bukhara|Khan of Bukhara]], wrote poetry under the pseudonym "Shibani". A collection of Chagatai poems by Muhammad Shaybani is currently kept in the [[Topkapı Palace Museum]] manuscript collection in [[Istanbul]]. The manuscript of his philosophical and religious work, ''Bahr al-Khudā'', written in 1508, is located in London.<ref>A.J.E.Bodrogligeti, «Muhammad Shaybanî’s Bahru’l-huda : An Early Sixteenth Century Didactic Qasida in Chagatay», Ural-Altaische Jahrbücher, vol.54 (1982), p. 1 and n.4</ref>

Shaybani's nephew [[Ubaydullah Khan]] (1486–1540) skillfully recited the [[Quran]] and provided it with commentaries in Chagatai. Ubaydulla himself wrote poetry in Chagatai, Classical Persian, and Arabic under the literary pseudonym Ubaydiy.<ref>B. V. Norik, Rol shibanidskikh praviteley v literaturnoy zhizni Maverannakhra XVI v. // Rakhmat-name. Sankt Petersburg, 2008, p.230</ref>

For the Uzbek political elite of the 16th century, Chagatai was their native language. For example, the leader of the semi-nomadic Uzbeks, Sheibani Khan (1451–1510), wrote poems in Chagatai.<ref>A.J.E.Bodrogligeti, «MuÌammad Shaybænî’s Bahru’l-huda : An Early Sixteenth Century Didactic Qasida in Chagatay», Ural-Altaische Jahrbücher, vol.54 (1982), p. 1 and n.4</ref>

The poet Turdiy (17th century) in his poems called for the unification of the divided Uzbek tribes: "Although our people are divided, but these are all Uzbeks of ninety-two tribes. We have different names – we all have the same blood. We are one people, and we should have one law. Floors, sleeves and collars – it's all – one robe, So the Uzbek people are united, may they be in peace."<ref>Turdy. Izbrannyye proizvedeniya. Tashkent, 1951, p.33</ref>

Sufi Allayar (1633–1721) was an outstanding theologian and one of the [[Sufism|Sufi leaders]] of the Khanate of Bukhara. He showed his level of knowledge by writing a book called ''Sebâtü'l-Âcizîn''. Sufi Allayar was often read and highly appreciated in Central Asia.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/sufi-allahyar | title=Sûfî Allahyâr }}</ref>

The term ''Uzbek'' as applied to language has meant different things at different times. 
* ''Uzbek'' was a [[Vowel harmony|vowel-harmonised]] [[Kipchak languages|Kipchak language]] spoken by descendants of those who arrived in [[Transoxiana]] who lived mainly around [[Bukhara]] and [[Samarkand]].
* Chagatai was a Karluk language spoken by the older settled Turkic populations ("[[Sart]]s") of the region in the [[Fergana Valley]] and the [[Qashqadaryo Region]], and in some parts of what is now the [[Samarqand Region]]; it contained a heavier admixture of Persian and Arabic and did not have [[vowel harmony]].

During the eighteenth and nineteenth century, Chagatai remained the main literary language in most of Central Asia, but it faced a phase of decay.<ref name="Clark, Larry p. 318">Clark, Larry, Michael Thurman, and David Tyson. "Turkmenistan." Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan: Country Studies. p. 318. Comp. Glenn E. Curtis. Washington, D.C.: Division, 1997</ref> Eventually, Chagatai was mostly referred to as the language of the [[Sart]]s, the settled Turkic-speaking populations of the [[Fergana Valley]], although the definition of this term shifted through the decades. According to the Kazakh scholar [[Serali Lapin]], who lived at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century, "there is no special Sart language different from Uzbek".<ref>Bronnikova O. M., Sarty v etnicheskoy istorii Sredney Azii (k postanovke problemy) Etnosy i etnicheskiye protsessy. Moskva: Vostochnaya literatura, 1993, s. 153.</ref> Russian researchers of the second half of the 19th century, like L. N. Sobolev, believed that "Sart is not a special tribe, as many tried to prove. Sart is indifferently called both Uzbek and Tajik, who live in the city and are engaged in trade".<ref>Sobolev L. N. Geograficheskiye i statisticheskiye svedeniya o Zeravshanskom okruge (s prilozheniyem spiska naselonnykh mest okruga), Zapiski IRGO po otdeleniyu statistiki. SPb., 1874. T.4. S. 299. Prim. 1.</ref>

As part of the preparation for the 1924 establishment of the [[Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic|Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan]], Chagatai was officially renamed "Old Uzbek",<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tdEyAQAAQBAJ&q=Chagatai+%22Old+Uzbek%22+official&pg=PA179|title=Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Neighbors: The Changing Politics of Language Choice|last=Schiffman|first=Harold|publisher=Brill Academic|year=2011|isbn=978-9004201453|pages=178–179}}</ref><ref name="Newton2014" /><ref name="Grenoble2006">{{cite book |last=Grenoble |first=L. A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WUeWBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA149 |title=Language Policy in the Soviet Union |date=11 April 2006 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-0-306-48083-6}}</ref><ref name="Dalby1998">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryoflang00dalb|url-access=registration|quote=Chagatai Old Uzbek official.|title=Dictionary of Languages: The Definitive Reference to More Than 400 Languages|first=Andrew |last=Dalby|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0-231-11568-1|pages=[https://archive.org/details/dictionaryoflang00dalb/page/665 665]–}}</ref><ref name="Bergne2007">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oioBAwAAQBAJ&q=Chagatai+%22Old+Uzbek%22+official&pg=PA137|title=Birth of Tajikistan: National Identity and the Origins of the Republic|author=Paul Bergne|date=29 June 2007|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-0-85771-091-8|pages=24, 137}}</ref> which [[Edward A. Allworth]] argued "badly distorted the literary history of the region" and was used to give authors such as [[Ali-Shir Nava'i]] an [[Uzbeks|Uzbek]] identity.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=beCoAAAAQBAJ&q=Chagatai+%22Old+Uzbek%22+official&pg=PT202|title=The Modern Uzbeks: From the Fourteenth Century to the Present: A Cultural History|last=Allworth|first=Edward A.|publisher=Hoover Institution Press|year=1990|isbn=978-0817987329|pages=229–230}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TPESAQAAMAAJ&q=Chagatai+%22Old+Uzbek%22+official|title=Aramco World Magazine|publisher=Arabian American Oil Company|year=1985|page=27}}</ref>

After the independence of Uzbekistan, the Uzbek government opted to reform Northern Uzbek by changing its alphabet from Cyrillic to Latin in an attempt to stimulate the growth of Uzbek in a new, independent state. However, the reform never went into full application, and {{As of|2024}} both alphabets are widely used, from daily uses to government publications and TV news. Uzbek language hasn't eclipsed Russian in the government sector since Russian is used widely in sciences, politics, and by the upper class of the country. However, the Uzbek internet, including [[Uzbek Wikipedia]], is growing rapidly.<ref>{{Cite web |date=19 February 2019 |title=Uzbekistan: Why Uzbek Language Has Not Become a Language of Politics and Science? |url=https://cabar.asia/en/uzbekistan-why-uzbek-language-has-not-become-a-language-of-politics-and-science |access-date=27 October 2023 |website=CABAR.asia |language=en-GB}}</ref>