Comparison between Uzbek and Qaraqalpaq

Phonological differences

Where most suffixes in literary Uzbek don't change at all, suffixes in Qaraqalpaq change based on phonological factors—i.e., depending on nearby sounds.

The place where this might be most evident is Qaraqalpaq vowel harmony.

Compare the following suffix:

meaning	Uzbek form	Qaraqalpaq form
Plural	-lar	-lAr

The Uzbek form is always -lar, but in Qaraqalpaq the A character is used to represent the fact that the sound in this position can be realised in more than one way. Compare:

meaning	Uzbek form	Qaraqalpaq form
‘apple-pl’	olma-lar	alma-lar
‘camel-pl’	tuya-lar	túye-ler

Note that the A is sometimes ‘a’ and sometimes ‘e’, based on the last vowel of the preceding word. This isn't simply because the last vowel of the preceding word is an ‘a’ and ‘e’, respectively, but because they are back and front vowels, respectively. And it also mostly doesn't matter what intervening consonants there are. Here's the full list of Qaraqalpaq vowels and how they behave with respect to this "vowel harmony":

vowel	front or back	example
i	front	tiller ‘language-pl’
e	front
ú	front	kúnler ‘day-pl’
ó	front	kóller ‘lake-pl’
á	usually front	tánlár ‘body-pl’
a	back
ı	back
o	back
u	back

The main exception to á being front is nouns that end in á, where it acts back: gúnálar ‘sin-pl’.

[discussion of I]

[consonants: D]

[combination: G]

Differences in vocabulary

Some everyday vocabulary in Uzbek and Qaraqalpaq is significantly different:

gloss	Uzbek	Qaraqalpaq
‘but’	ammo, biroq	biraq
‘because’	chunki	sebebi
‘what’	nima	ne
‘and’	va, ham	jáne, hám
‘or’	yoki	yamasa
‘speak’	gapir-	sóyle-
‘this’	shu, ushbu	usı
‘this’	bu	bul
‘that’	osha	sol
‘that’	u	ol

A lot of other vocabulary can be understood as cognate, but with some sound correspondences.

Since these correspondences are the result of different sets of changes from a common shared ancestral language, as well as borrowings into different stages of the two languages at different times, there's a lot of messiness. But some common mappings can be noted.

Helpful sound correspondences

The main vowel correspondences are summarised in this table:

Uzbek sound	Qaraqalpaq sound	examples
i	i
	ı
u	u	qul ≈ qul
	ú	kul ≈ kúl
oʼ	o	boʼl- ≈ bol- ‘be’
	ó	oʼmir ≈ ómir koʼz ≈ kóz boʼl- ≈ ból- ‘divide’
o	a	och- ≈ ash- ‘open’ anor ≈ ánar dorixona dárixana
	á	avlod ≈ áwlát dorixona dárixana
a		adabiyot ≈ ádebiyat anor ≈ ánar
	a	dorixona dárixana
	e	adabiyot ≈ ádebiyat
e

Some of the main consonant correspondences are summarised in this table:

Uzbek sound	Qaraqalpaq sound	examples
ʼ	ğ
	­--
y	j	yaqin ≈ jaqın
	y	(less common)
sh	s	boshla- ≈ basla- qish ≈ qıs tish ≈ tis tosh ≈ tas
ch	sh	qachon ≈ qashan kecha ≈ keshe uchun ≈ ushın