Uzbek is the official language of Uzbekistan, where about 15 million of its residents are native speakers. Uzbek speakers can also be found in the surrounding countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. A related language, but one that is also considered separate and distinct, known as Southern Uzbek is spoken by some 1.5 million people in Afghanistan. Uzbek is a member of the Eastern Turkic language group which also includes Uighur. East Turkic forms a sub-group of Common Turkic which also includes Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tartar, Azerbaijani and Turkish. There are several major Uzbek dialects. These are: Sart, Lokhay, Qurama, Oghuz, Kypchak, Uighur, Chigile, and Karluko. Written Uzbek has seen some significant dialectal shifts culminating in the elevation of the dialect of the capital city, Tashkent, to prominence though it differs significantly from the earlier standards.