Uzbek lessons (tutorial): #14 The Uzbek alphabet, abbreviations, with audio

O’zbek alifbosi (or alfaviti) is translated as the Uzbek alphabet. What letters do Uzbeks have? How many letters are there in the Uzbek language? How many of them are vowels? Cyrillic or Latin? How do the letters of the Uzbek Cyrillic and Latin alphabet relate to each other? What do the most popular abbreviations, or qisqartmalar, mean in Uzbek? We will learn about all this in the 14th lesson of the Uzbek language, compiled on the basis of excerpts from my new tutorial. In this lesson, as in others, audio is from native Uzbek speakers.

As usual, part of the lesson from my Uzbek language tutorial is available to everyone, and part is available to site donors. Also, only donors (it’s not expensive — from $3 per month) have access to the answers to the exercises from the previous lesson. So become those who support the site — the benefits are mutual.

First, think about what these abbreviations mean in Uzbek: IIV and O’zR.

Certainly!

IIV = Ichki ishlar vazirligi, , i.e. the MIA, or the Ministry of Internal Affairs
O’zR = O’zbekiston Respublikasi, i.e. the RUz, or the Republic of Uzbekistan

Now answer a couple of questions.

1. Ismingiz nima? — What is your name?
2. Harflab ayting, iltimos. — Spell it, please. (harf — letter, -lab affix, which forms adverbs from nouns and adjectives)

O’zbek alifbosi (The Uzbek alphabet)

The modern Uzbek Latin alphabet has 30 units — 26 letters, 3 digraphs and an apostrophe. There are 6 vowels and 23 consonants in total. The Uzbek Cyrillic alphabet, which is still in use, has 35 units — 10 vowels, 23 consonants and 2 signs.

Exercise 1.

Listen and repeat the letters of the Uzbek alphabet.

Exercise 2.

Listen and repeat the letters of the Uzbek alphabet.

Exercise 3.
Hear the difference between the letters.

1 E I
2 G G’
3 H X
4 O O’
5 Y U
6 M N
7 K Q
8 O’ U
9 J G
10 B P
11 D T
12 V B

Exercise 4.
Listen. Circle the letter you hear from Exercise 3.

Abbreviations, or qisqartmalar, in the Uzbek language

Abbreviations in the Uzbek language are formed in three ways:

1. by abbreviation keeping initial letters: IIV — The MIA, SI (sun’iy intellekt) — AI (artificial intelligence);
2. by connecting the initial element of the first word (or several first words) and the first letters of subsequent words: O’zR — RUz, O’zLiDeP (Oʻzbekiston Liberal-demokratik partiyasi) — The Liberal Democratic Party of Uzbekistan;
3. by abbreviating from the initial elements of words: Toshunivermag (Toshkent universal magazini) — the Tashkent department store.

Exercise 5.
Look at the pictures. How do you pronounce these abbreviations? What do they mean? Listen and check.

Exercise 6.
Circle the odd one on each line. Listen. Listen and repeat.

1 A O O’ BВам надо стать донором. You need to become a donor.

Exercise 7.

Say the abbreviations. What do they mean? Then listen and test yourself.