Altaic , Turkic, Eastern. Arabic and Roman scripts used formerly, now Cyrillic script is used. Used in schools, publishing, radio, television, theater. Children speak Uzbek at home. Many speakers are bilingual in Russian, but rural people have limited proficiency.
People are highly literate and about one-third urbanized.
Much Persian influence in language and culture. Increasing ethnic pride. Sart' is an obsolete name for sedentary Uzbek, possibly those who are ethnically Tajik. Turks of Fergana and Samarkand speak Uzbek. There are Uzbek-speaking Gypsy communities in Soviet central Asia.