Turkmen alphabet

The current official Turkmen alphabet as used in Turkmenistan is a modified Latin alphabet based on the Turkish alphabet, but with notable differences: J is used instead of the Turkish C; Ž is used instead of the Turkish J; Y is used instead of the dotless i (I/ı); Ý is used instead of the Turkish consonantal Y; and the letters Ä and Ň have been added to represent the phonetic values [æ] and [ŋ] , respectively. At the start of the 20th century, when Turkmen first started to be written, it used the Arabic script, but in 1928 the Latin alphabet was adopted. In 1940, the Russian influence in Soviet Turkmenistan prompted a switch to a Cyrillic alphabet, and a modified Turkmen Cyrillic alphabet (shown below in the table alongside the Latin) was created. When Turkmenistan first became independent in 1991, president Saparmurat Niyazov immediately instigated a return to the Latin alphabet. When it was first reintroduced it was supposed to contain some rather unusual letters, such as the pound, dollar, yen, and cent signs, but these were later replaced by more orthodox letter symbols. The political and social forces that have combined to bring about these changes of script, then modifications of the Latin script, have been documented by Clement (1980).

Turkmen is still often written with an adapted Arabic alphabet in other countries where the language is spoken and where the Arabic script is dominant (such as Afghanistan).

Alphabetic order

;Cyrillic alphabetАа, Бб, Вв, Гг, Дд, Ее, Ёё, Жж, Җҗ, Зз, Ии, Йй, Кк, Лл, Мм, Ңң, Оо, Өө, Пп, Рр, Сс, Тт, Уу, Үү, Фф, Хх, (Цц), Чч, Шш, (Щщ), (Ъъ), Ыы, (Ьь), Ээ, Әә, Юю, Яя

;Latin alphabetAa, Bb, Çç, Dd, Ee, Ää, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Žž, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Ňň, Oo, Öö, Pp, Rr, Ss, Şş, Tt, Uu, Üü, Ww, Yy, Ýý, Zz

Correspondence chart

Letter names and pronunciation

Pronunciation of the Latin alphabet

"Türkmen elipbiýi"

Cyrillic

"түркмен элипбийи"

References

*Clement, Victoria. 2008. Emblems of independence: script choice in post-Soviet Turkmenistan in the 1990s. "International Journal of the Sociology of Language" 192: 171-185

ee also

*Alphabet
*Turkish alphabet

External links

* [http://www.omniglot.com/writing/turkmen.htm Omniglot]