Languages of Uzbekistan

The Uzbek language is one of the Turkic languages close to Uyghur language and both of them belong to the Karluk languages branch of the Turkic language family. Uzbek language is the only official state language,[3] and since 1992 is officially written in the Latin alphabet.

Karakalpak, is also a Turkic language but closer to Kazakh, is spoken in the Republic of Karakalpakstan and has an official status there. This language is spoken by half a million people. More than 800,000 people also speak the Kazakh language.

Before the 1920s, the written language of Uzbeks was called Turki (known to Western scholars as Chagatai) and used the Nastaʿlīq script. In 1926 the Latin alphabet was introduced and went through several revisions throughout the 1930s. Finally, in 1940, the Cyrillic alphabet was introduced by Soviet authorities and was used until the fall of Soviet Union. In 1993 Uzbekistan shifted back to the Latin script (Uzbek alphabet), which was modified in 1996 and has been taught in schools since 2000. Schools, colleges, and universities teach only in Latin script. At the same time, in the country for Uzbek language is also used officially abolished the Cyrillic alphabet. Cyrillic is used in a number of popular newspapers and websites. Some of the text on the TV on some channels is duplicated in the Cyrillic alphabet. Cyrillic is popular with the older generation of Uzbeks who grew up on this alphabet.[4]

Map depicting Persian speakers in Uzbekistan

Although the Russian language is not formally declared an official language in the country, it is widely used in all fields, including official documents. It, along with Uzbek, are the permissible languages of notary institutions and registry offices.[5] Thus, the Russian language is the de facto second official language in Uzbekistan. Russian is an important language for interethnic communication, especially in the cities, including much day-to-day technical, scientific, governmental and business use. The country is also home to approximately one million people whose native language is Russian.[6][7][8][9][10] The local dialect is Uzbekistani Russian.

The Tajik language (a variety of Persian) is widespread in the cities of Bukhara and Samarkand because of their relatively large population of ethnic Tajiks (official 1,5 million).[11] It is also found in large pockets in Kasansay, Chust, Rishtan and Sokh in Ferghana Valley, as well as in Burchmulla, Ahangaran, Baghistan in the middle Syr Darya district, and finally in, Shahrisabz, Qarshi, Kitab and the river valleys of Kafiringan and Chaganian, forming altogether, approximately 10–15% of the population of Uzbekistan.[12]

There are no language requirements for the citizenship of Uzbekistan.[9]