Language Information
Located in the heart of Central Asia, Uzbekistan was a historic center of empires, education, and trade. Many cities in Uzbekistan were hubs on the ancient Silk Road, the famous trading route between China and the West.Today, Uzbekistan is the second largest exporter of cotton after the U.S. and has rich natural resources: natural gas, oil, gold, copper, uranium, and others. Also, Uzbekistan is a strategically important country in Central Asia.Uzbek is a Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 35.3 million native speakers and belongs to the southeastern Turkic (or Karluk) family of Turkic languages, from which it gets its lexicon and grammar. Other influences stem from Persian, Arabic and Russian.
At Indiana University, three years of Uzbek language courses are available through the Central Eurasian Studies (CEUS) department.
For more information about the Uzbek Language and study at Indiana University, visit the Inner Asian & Uralic National Resource Centerhere on campus. For additional language materials and resources, visit the Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region
During the summer, intensive language courses are available through the Language Workshop.