Chuvash language

Chuvash [CHOO-vahsh] (Чӑваш чӗлхи, also knowns as Chuwash or Chovash or Chavash or Çuaş) is a Turkic language spoken west of the Urals in central Russia. Chuvash is the native language of the Chuvash people and an official language of Chuvashia. It is spoken by about two million people.

The Chuvash alphabet uses the cyrillic script plus extra letters: А, Е with caron (short vowels), У with umlaut (Ü), and Ç for a sound like the German Ich-Laut.

The Chuvash language has afficates [dZ] and [tS] (дж, ч), pronounced as in Turkish, and sounds without afficates as in Tatar (ж, ç).

Alphabet:

А Ӑ Б В Г Д Е Ё Ӗ Ж З И Й К Л М Н О П Р С Ҫ Т У Ӳ Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я
а ӑ б в г д е ё ӗ ж з и й	к	л	м	н	о	п	р	с	ҫ	т	у	ӳ	ф	х	ц	ч	ш	щ	ъ	ы	ь	э	ю	я

There are two dialect of Chuvash: Viryal or Upper (pronouncing o) and Anatri or Lower (pronouncing u). The literary language is based on the Lower dialect. Both Tatar and Finnic languages have influenced the Chuvash language.

There are Russian, Mari, Arab and Farsi words in Chuvash.

The most ancient writing system was Runic, which disappeared after converting Volga Bulgars to Islam. Later, Arabic was used. After Mongol invasion writing dissapeared. The modern alphabet was created in 1873 by I. Ya. Yakovlev.

Cyrillic extra letters for Chuvash language:

Ӑӑ Ӗӗ Ҫҫ Ӳӳ

See also

Wikipedia in Chuvash