Central Asian Languages
An enormous number of languages are spoken by the various ethnic groups that inhabit Central Asia. Turkic languages, which belong to the Altaic family of world languages, are the most frequently spoken in Central Asia, followed by the Iranian (mainly Tajik) and Slavic languages (Russian and Ukrainian), which belong to the Indo-European family. The numerous languages of Central Asia reflect the various peoples who moved into and through the region and demonstrate the significance of this area not only for its natural resources but also for its strategic role as a major crossroad in Asia.
The Russian language has been an important influence in Central Asian education, administration, and interethnic communication since the time of imperial Russia and during the Soviet regime. Each ethnic language used in the area was given its own Cyrillic alphabet by the Soviet regime during the 1940s. In post-Soviet Central Asia, however, the independent states changed their language policies, declaring the language of the ethnic majority as the state language. Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan have also changed their alphabets from Cyrillic to Latin. Central Asian states use their state languages increasingly in education, although they are having difficulties in finding course materials in these languages.
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