- Turkmen alphabet
The current official Turkmen alphabet as used in
Turkmenistan is a modifiedLatin alphabet based on theTurkish 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 theArabic script , but in 1928 the Latin alphabet was adopted. In 1940, the Russian influence in Soviet Turkmenistan prompted a switch to aCyrillic alphabet , and a modified Turkmen Cyrillic alphabet (shown below in the table alongside the Latin) was created. When Turkmenistan first became independent in 1991, presidentSaparmurat 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 asAfghanistan ).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]
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