Uzbek/Lesson Three

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This lesson is divided up into several sections. After your done you'll be ready to have your very first conversation in Uzbek. Sure, it'll be real simple—but you'll know how to greet somebody, introduce yourself, ask some polite questions, and say goodbye. If you want to do it intensive (which I'd recommend) you can do this all as one lesson. If you don't have much time the dialogues are broken up into four sections—just do one. (Eventually I think we'll merge all four tiny dialogues)

Cultural Notes
Uzbek families are very close-knit and Uzbeks spend a great deal of time with their family members. The average family has four or five children, but in rural areas families with ten children or more are very common.

Most families live in private, one-story houses with a courtyard (hovli) where family members spend much of their time together. In summer months families have their meals and relax here under grape trellises (ishkom), and often sleep outside on special structures with bedding.

Uzbek parents, especially outside the major cities, enjoy great authority. Children are expected to help in a wide variety of household chores. Girls are responsible for the cleanliness of the courtyard, while boys take care of its trees and flowers.

Young women usually get married between the ages of 19 and 22, and men tend to get married a few years later. It is customary, especially in rural areas, for married sons and their wives to live with the son's parents. If there are several sons in a family, the oldest son and his family may move out when his next younger brother gets married.

Uzbek families gather to mark many important life-cycle events. One of the most important celebrations is the circumcision feast (sunnat toyi) for boys of pre-school age. Other major gatherings are organized at the time of engagement and marriage of children, following the birth of a child, as part of funerals, and on the seventh day, the twentieth day, the fortieth day, and the one year anniversary of a death. One of the Uzbeks' favorite holidays is Navroz, which is celebrated at the time of the spring equinox on March 21 or 22. Other important holidays include the twice yearly Muslim observances (hayit) and occasions state holidays, along with September 1, which is celebrated as Uzbekistan's Independence Day.

Grammar and Vocabulary Explanations
The verbs turaman in the sentence Bu yerda ikki yil turaman "I will stay here for two years," is in the present-future tense. The present-future tense is formed by adding the suffix -a (after consonants) or -y (after vowels) to the stem of the verb. To indicate person, this suffix is followed by one of the predicative suffixes -man, -san, -di; -miz, -siz, -dilar. This tense may be translated as an English present or future:

Recap
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