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The Chagatai language (جغتای - Jaĝatāy; Uyghur: چاغاتاي Chaghatay; Uzbek: ﭼىﻐﺎتوي Chig'atoy) is an extinct Turkic language which was once widely spoken in Central Asia. The word Chagatai relates to the Chagatai Khanate, the western part of the Mongol empire, which was left to Genghis Khan's second son Chagatai Khan. Many of the Chagatai Turks and Tatars who were the speakers of this language claimed descent from Chagatai Khan.

It was developed as a sophisticated written language using the Arabic alphabet. It was heavily influenced by the Arabic and Persian languages, and incorporated much of the nomadic Turkic, having thus served as a lingua franca in Central Asia. It can be divided into three periods:

1. Pre-classical Chagatai 1400-1465
2. Classical Chagatai 1465-1600
3. Post-classical Chagatai 1600-1921

The first period is a transitional phase characterized by the retention of archaic forms; the second phase starts with the publication of Mir Alisher Navoi's first Divan and is the highpoint of Chagatai literature, followed by the third phase, which is characterized by two bifurcating developments. One is the preservation of the classical Chagatai language of Navoi, the other trend is the increasing influence of the dialects of the local spoken languages. The Chagatai Turkic language lived its heyday in the Timurid Empire. Furthermore, Timur's biography is written in Chagatai Turkic as is also the famous Baburnama of Babur, the Timurid founding the Mughal Empire. Chagatai remained the universal literary language of Central Asia until the Soviet reforms of the early twentieth century.

Uzbek and modern Uyghur are the two modern languages most closely related to Chagatai, and Uzbeks regard Chagatai as an earlier form of their language and claim Chagatai literature as their own. In Uzbekistan, then a part of the Soviet Union, Chagatai was replaced by a literary language based on the local Uzbek dialect in 1921. The so-called Berendek, a 12th century medieval nomadic Turki people possibly related to the Cumans, seem also to have spoken a language which ultimately was identified as Chagatai.

Ethnologue records the use of the word "Chagatai" in Afghanistan to describe the "Tekke" dialect of Turkmen. Up to and including the eighteenth century Chagatai was the main literary language in Turkmenistan as elsewhere in Central Asia, and had some influence on Turkmen, but in fundamentals the two languages belong to different branches of the Turkic family.

The most famous of the Chagatai poets is Mir Ali Shir Nava'i. This is attested by the fact that Chagatai is sometimes called "Nava'i's language". Among the prose works, Baburnama, which is also known as "Tuska Babure" and was written by first Mughal Emperor Babur, is highly regarded. Chagatai literature is still studied in modern Turkey and regarded as part of the Turkish heritage.

• Eckmann, János, Chagatay Manual. (Indiana University publications: Uralic and Altaic series ; 60). Bloomington, Ind. : Indiana University, 1966. – Reprinted edition: Richmond: Curzon Press, 1997, ISBN-10: 0-7007-0860-X ISBN-13: 978-0-7007-0860-4 [1]
• Bodrogligeti, András J. E., A Grammar of Chagatay. (Languages of the World: Materials ; 155). München: LINCOM Europa, 2001. (Repr. 2007), ISBN 3-89586-563-X [2]

• Russian imperial policies in Central Asia by H.B.Paksoy