Chuvash phonology

There are 5 front vowels and 4 back vowels in Chuvash:и, ы, у, ӳ, е, ӗ, о, а, ӑ.

The phoneme /o/ is found either only in loanwords or in upper dialect (vir'jal).

Front vovels: [i] - и, [e] - е, [y] - ӳ, [ø̆] - ӗ.
Back vovels: [ɯ] - ы, [a] - а, [u] - y, [ɤ̆] - ӑ.

In Chuvash there are no phonological distinctions between noisy voiceless/voiced and hard/soft consonants.

At the beginning and end of words, in the middle of words before consonants, they are pronounced only silently. In the position between vowels and between a sonorant and a vowel, the noisy consonants become voiced. E.g.: sword -- hĕşĕ (written) - hĕžĕ (pronunciation).

Stop consonants: [p] - п, [t] - т, [tɕ] - ч, [k] - к.
Fricative consonants: [s] - с, [ʃ] - ш, [ɕ] - ҫ, [x] - х.
Nasal consonants: [m] - м, [n] - н.
Approximant consonants: [ʋ] - в, [l] - л, [j] - й.
Trill consonants: [r] - р.

The usual rule given in grammars of Chuvash is that the last full (non-reduced) vowel of the word is stressed; if there are no full vowels, the first vowel is stressed. Reduced vowels that precede or follow a stressed full vowel are extremely short and non-prominent. One scholar, Dobrovolsky, however, hypothesises that there is in fact no stress in disyllabic words in which both vowels are reduced.

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Arabic alphabet for Chuvash (Some sounds that are used in borrowings through Russian are missing here):

А - ا
Ӑ - أ
В - ۋ
Е - ە
Ӗ - ۀ
И - ې
Й - ي
К - ك
Л - ل
М - م
Н - ن
П - پ
Р - ر
С - س
Ҫ - ج
Т - ت
У - و؜
Ӳ - ۆ
Ф - ف
Х - خ
Ч - چ
Ш - ش
Ы - ى

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Chuvash #Alphabet

Chuvash Alphabet

The Chuvash language and its predecessor previously used different writing systems: Bulgarian runes, Arabic script (based on Persian script), Latin script. However, the modern Chuvash language uses Cyrillic script, although there are non-official variations based on Latin script and Arabic script. Here I will show the official Cyrillic alphabet, as well as a relatively common variation of the Latin script (1st - cyrillic, next Latin). If you are interested, I will show the Arabic script variant for the Chuvash language in the comments.

Аа - Aa
Ӑӑ - ă/ò/å
Бб - Bb (only in loanwords)
Вв - Vv
Гг - Gg (only in loanwords)
Дд - Dd (only in loanwords)
Ee - Ee, je
Ёё - Jo (only in loanwords)
Ӗӗ - ĕ/ö
Жж - Zh/q (only in loanwords)
Зз - Zz (only in loanwords)
Ии - Ii
Йй - Jj
Кк - Kk
Лл - Ll
Мм - Mm
Нн - Nn
Оо - Oo
Пп - Pp
Рр - Rr
Сс - Cc
Ҫҫ - ş/ś
Тт - Tt
Уу - Uu
Ӳӳ - ü
Фф - Ff (only in loanwords)
Хх - Hh
Цц - Ts (only in loanwords)
Чч - Ch/ç/č/c
Шш - Sh/š
Щщ - Shch/shh/śç (only in loanwords)
Ъъ (хытӑлӑх палли) - `/`` (only in loanwords)
Ыы - Yy/ı (only in beginning of words)
Ьь (ҫемҫелӗх палли) - `/j (only in loanwords)
Ээ - Ee (only first letter)
Юю - Ju
Яя - Ja

Five voiced consonant letters Б(B), Г (G), Д (D), Ж(zh), З(Z), vowels Ё(jo), as well as consonants Ф(F), Ц(Ts), Щ(Shch) are used only when writing words borrowed from the Russian language or through the Russian language.

There are practically no words that begin with the letter Р(R) or there are very few of them and they appeared quite recently (also borrowings), for example: "расна/rasna" ("various").

Almost all words beginning with the letter "Л(L)" are borrowed either from Arabic "лайӑх/laiӑh" (good) or from Finno-Ugric languages, e.g. "лӑпкӑ/lӑpkӑ" (quiet, calm, peaceful).

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