Sakha scripts

A fragment of suruk bicik

There have been three major Sakha writing systems used since the early 20th century. The first systematic alphabet was developed by Semyon Novgorodov, and was based on the International Phonetic Alphabet. Novgorodov's alphabet was developed in 1917, and continued in use until 1929. In addition to the characters shown below, Novogorodov also introduced four letters to represent the diphthongs found in Sakha: /ɯa͡/ – , /ie͡/ – , /uo͡/ – , and /yø͡/ – w. Vowel and consonant length was indicated with the colon (e.g. a:, t:). While this alphabet was in use, various changes were implemented, including the addition of capital letters. After 1929, Novgorodov's alphabet was replaced by a form of Latin script based on the Uniform Turkic Alphabet.^[1] This was in turn replaced in 1939 by an alphabet using the Cyrillic script. Prior to the Novgorodov alphabet, various ad hoc phonetic Latin and Cyrillic-based systems had been developed.

Currently only the Cyrillic Sakha alphabet is in use. This script consists of the usual Russian characters but with 5 additional letters: Ҕҕ, Ҥҥ, Өө, Һһ, Үү.

Table of Alphabets Used to Write Sakha with Approximate Dates of Use^[2]

IPA	1819–1858	1851–1917	1858–1917	1917–1927 (Novgorodov Alphabet)	1924–1929	1929–1939 (Uniform Turkic Alphabet)	1939–Present	Notes
a	Аа	Аа	Аа	a	Aa	Aa	Аа
b	Бб	Бб	Бб	b	Bb	Bв	Бб
v	Вв	–	–	–	–	Vv	Вв	found only in Russian loanwords
ɡ	Гг	Гг	Гг	g	Gg	Gg	Гг
ɣ, ʁ	–	Ҕҕ	–	ʃ		Ƣƣ	Ҕҕ
d	Дд	Дд	Дд	d	Dd	Dd	Дд
ɟ	–	Џџ		з	Зз	Çç	Дьдь
e, je	Ее	–	Ее	–	–	Ee	Ее	found only in Russian loanwords
jo	–	–	–	–	–	–	Ёё	found only in Russian loanwords
ʒ	Жж	–	–	–	–	Ƶƶ	Жж	found only in Russian loanwords
z	Зз	–	–	–	–	Zz	Зз	found only in Russian loanwords
i	Ии,Іі	Іі	Ии	i	Ii	Ii	Ии
j	–	Јј	Йй	j	Jj	Jj	Йй
ȷ̃	–	–	–	j̶	–	–	–
k	Кк	Кк	Кк	k	Kk	Kk	Кк
l	Лл	Лл	Лл	l	Лл	Ll	Лл
ʎ	–	Ll	–	ʎ	Ll	–	–
m	Мм	Мм	Мм	m	Mm	Mm	Мм
n	Нн	Нн	Нн	n	Nn	Nn	Нн
ŋ	–	Ңң	Ҥҥ	ŋ	Ņŋ	Ņŋ	Ҥҥ
ɲ	–	Н̕н̕	–	ɲ		Njnj	Ньнь
o	Оо	Оо	Оо	ɔ	Ɔɔ	Oo	Оо
ø	–	Ӧӧ	Ёё			Ɵɵ	Өө
p	Пп	Пп	Пп	p	Pp	Pp	Пп
r	Рр	Рр	Рр	r	Rr	Rr	Рр
s	Сс	Сс	Сс	s	Ss	Ss	Сс
h	–	һ	–	h	Hh	Hh	Һһ
t	Тт	Тт	Тт	t	Tt	Tt	Тт
u	Уу	Уу	Уу	u	Uu	Uu	Уу
y	–	Ӱӱ	–	y	Yy	Yy	Үү
f	Фф, Ѳѳ	–	–	–	–	Ff	Фф	found only in Russian loanwords
x	Хх	Хх	Хх	q	–	–	Хх
ts	Цц	–	–	–	–	–	Цц	found only in Russian loanwords
tʃ	Чч	Чч	Чч	c	Cc	Cc	Чч
ʃ	Шш	–	–	–	–	Şş	Шш	found only in Russian loanwords
ɕː	Щщ	–	–	–	–	–	Щщ	found only in Russian loanwords
◌.	Ъъ	Ъъ	–	–	–	–	Ъъ	found only in Russian loanwords
ɯ	Ыы	Ыы	Ыы	ɯ	Ыы	Ьь	Ыы
◌ʲ	Ьь	Ьь	–	–	–	–	Ьь	found only in digraphs (дь, нь) and Russian loanwords
e	Ее	Ää	Ээ	e	Ee	Əə	Ээ
ju	Юю	Юю	–	–	–	–	Юю	found only in Russian loanwords
ja	Яя	Яя	–	–	–	–	Яя	found only in Russian loanwords

Notes

1. ^ "Yakut language". Minority languages of Russia on the net. http://www.peoples.org.ru/eng_jakut.html. Retrieved 2007-05-18. 
2. ^ Петров, Н.Е. (1972). "Алфавит Якутского Языка". In Баскаков, Н.А. (in Russian). Вопросы Совершенствования Алфавитов Тюркских Языков СССР. Moscow: Академия наук СССР 

Further reading

• Omniglot entry
• Minority Languages of Russia entry