Alternate Names: Usbeki, Uzbak, Uzbeki
Dialects: None known. Somewhat intelligible of, but differences in grammar from, Northern Uzbek ,. Many loan words from Dari ,. A member of macrolanguage Uzbek ,.
Genealogy:
Demographics: 2,910,000 in Afghanistan (2011 UNSD), increasing. Population total all countries: 2,961,980. 1,000,000 monolinguals. Ethnic population: 2,910,000.
Language Use: Vigorous. All domains. All ages. Mostly positive attitudes. 1,700,000 also use Dari [prs]. Used primarily by city dwellers; village dwellers have limited ability in Dari. Also use Southern Pashto [pbt]. Used as L2 by Turkmen [tuk].
Language Development: Literacy rate in L1: 1%. Literacy rate in L2: 20% in Dari [prs]. L1 Literacy in larger towns increasing among younger population. The Afghanistan Ministry of Education has produced Southern Uzbek textbooks for grades 1–3; planned through 12th grade. Taught in secondary schools. Poetry. Magazines. Newspapers. New media. TV. Videos. Dictionary. Bible portions: 2004–2006.
Typology: SOV; postpositions; noun head final; content q-word final; one prefix in words borrowed from Dari ,, many suffixes (agglutinative); verbal affixation marks of person and number for subject and object; verb tense and aspect marked by suffixes; nontonal; no vowel harmony (unlike some other, closely-related Turkic languages).
Writing System: Arabic
Nation of Origin: Afghanistan
Other Comments: Muslim (Sunni).