Tags: Language.
Uzbek (oʻzbek tili or oʻzbekcha in Latin script; ўзбек тили or ўзбекча in Cyrillic script; اوزبیک تیلی or اوزبیکچه in Arabic script) is a Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has anywhere between 20 and 26 million native speakers and is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia. Uzbek belongs to the Eastern Turkic or Karluk (Qarluq) branch of the Turkic language family. External influences include Persian Arabic and Russian.