Unlike other Turkic languages, vowel harmony is almost completely lost in modern Standard Uzbek, though it is still observed to some degree in its dialects, as well as in Uyghur.

[13] Uzbek is the western member of the Karluk languages, a subgroup of Turkic; the eastern variant is Uyghur.

The popularity of Uzbek media, including Uzbekfilm and RizanovaUz, has spread among the Post-soviet states, particularly in Central Asia in recent years.

Since Uzbek is the dominant language in the Osh Region of Kyrgyzstan[citation needed] (and mothertongue of the city Osh), like the rest of Eastern, Southern and South-Eastern Kyrgyzstan (Jalal-Abad Region), the ethnic Kyrgyzes are, too, exposed to Uzbek, and some speak it fluently.

The Uzbek language has a special status in countries that are common destination for immigration for Uzbekistani citizens.

Other than Uzbekistan and other Central Asian Republics, the ethnic Uzbeks most commonly choose the Russian Federation[18] in search of work.

The first Turkic dynasty in the region was that of the Kara-Khanid Khanate from the 9th–12th centuries,[29] a confederation of Karluks, Chigils, Yagma, and other tribes.

[30] 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[31] (including the early Mughal rulers of the Mughal Empire).

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.

However, the reform never went into full application, and As of 2024[update] both alphabets are widely used, from daily uses to government publications and TV news.

[42] The Arabic script is no longer used in Uzbekistan except symbolically in limited texts[42] or for the academic studies of Chagatai (Old Uzbek).

[43] This would've reversed a 1995 reform, and brought the orthography closer to that of Turkish and also of Turkmen, Karakalpak, Kazakh (2018 version) and Azerbaijani.

[citation needed] In the western Chinese region of Xinjiang, in northern Afghanistan and in Pakistan,[46] where there is an Uzbek minority, the Arabic-based script is still used.

In the early 21st century, in Afghanistan, standardization, publication of dictionaries, and an increase in usage (for example in News agencies' website, such as that of the BBC) has been taking place.

The possessive suffixes change the final consonants -k ـک and -q ـق to voiced -g ـگ and -gʻ ـغ, respectively (yurak → yuragim یورک - یورگیم).

[48] Unlike neighbouring Turkmen and Kazakh languages, due to the loss of "pronominal -n-" there is no irregularity in forming cases after possessive cases (uyida اویی‌ده "in his/her/its house", as opposed to Turkmen öýünde اویونده, though saying uyinda اویینده is also correct but such style is mainly used in literary contexts).

Uzbek uses some of the inflectional (simple) verbal tenses:[50] -(a)ylik (biz) ـه‌یلیک (بیز) -∅ (sen) ـ (سین) -(i)ng (siz) ـینگ (سیز) -(i)nglar (sizlar) ـینگلر (سیزلر) -sin (u) ـسین (او) -sinlar (ular) ـسینلر (اولر) koʻraylik!

Menمین1SGkitobniکتاب‌نیbook-DO.SG.ACCkoʻrdimکوردیمsee-PAST.IND.1SGMen kitobni koʻrdimمین کتاب‌نی کوردیم1SG book-DO.SG.ACC see-PAST.IND.1SGI saw the bookThe influence of Islam, and by extension, Arabic, is evident in Uzbek loanwords.

It is estimated that Uzbek contains about 60 Mongolian loanwords,[53] scattered among the names of animals, birds, household items, chemical elements and especially military terms.

The Karluk dialects, centered on Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, and the Ferghana Valley, are the basis for the standard Uzbek language.

This dialect group shows the most influence of Persian vocabulary, particularly in the important Tajik-dominated cities of Bukhara and Samarkand.

Also in Russia there are 2 to 6 million Uzbeks from the Central Asian republics (mainly Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) who are immigrants and migrants.

Signs refer mainly to various restaurants and eateries, barbershops, shops selling fruits, vegetables and textile products.

[citation needed] The largest Uzbek language learning centers in Russia are located in the universities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

[61] Scientific interest in the history of the Uzbek language arose in the 19th century among European and Russian orientalists.

The Uzbek-speaking population was primarily concentrated in Central Asia, within the territories of the Russian Empire, including present-day Uzbekistan, parts of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.

As a regional language in the USSR, Uzbek gained institutional support in education and media, increasing its influence within Central Asia.

With the fall of the USSR, Uzbek gained prominence as a national language, and its number of speakers increased due to population growth.

Uzbek is primarily spoken in Uzbekistan but also in neighboring countries like Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, as well as by diaspora communities worldwide.

Uzbek is now one of the top 20 most spoken languages globally, thanks to Uzbekistan's large population (over 36 million) and Uzbek-speaking minorities in surrounding countries.