Across the world there are more than 15 million speakers of Uzbek. Most live in Uzbekistan, a nation born from the breakup of the Soviet Union. There are also pockets of Uzbek speakers in the neighboring countries of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan.

Uzbek is a Turkic language, as are Turkish, Azerbaijani, Tartar (spoken in parts of Russia), Kyrgyz, Kazakh, and Uygur (spoken in parts of China). All Turkic languages belong to the Altaic language family, which also includes Mongolian. Like many languages, Uzbek has several dialects.

There are 25 consonants and 10 vowels in Uzbek. Uzbek is usually written using the Cyrillic alphabet. The Cyrillic alphabet is closely based on the Greek alphabet and is also used to write the Russian language. Uzbek can also be written using the Latin, or Roman, alphabet, which is the alphabet English uses.

Before the 1920s, Uzbek was not considered a separate language. Instead, it was classified as just one of many Turkic dialects.

Some linguists believe that Korean and Japanese belong to the Altaic family, but most think that they are independent language groups.