Languagle #52: Uzbek
Yer — xazina, mehnat — kaliti
"The earth is the treasure; labour is the key to it."
What it means
The land holds wealth, but only work will unlock it. Said in a country whose economy has long depended on farming.
What kind of saying it is
Oral tradition. In Uzbek, a maqol. Passed down by word of mouth. Sayings like this have no single author.
About the Uzbek language
Uzbek is a Turkic language spoken by over 30 million people, mainly in Uzbekistan and in neighbouring Central Asian countries and Afghanistan. It belongs to the Karluk branch of Turkic, along with Uyghur, and it contains many Persian and Arabic words. In Uzbekistan it has officially moved from Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet, though both are still seen, while in Afghanistan it is written in an Arabic-based script.