Chuvash language
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Chuvash language (pronounced /ˈʧu.vaʃ/) (Чӑваш чӗлхи, also known as Chuwash, Chovash, Chavash or Çuaş) is a Turkic language spoken to the west of the Ural Mountains 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 writing system for the Chuvash language is based largely on the Cyrillic alphabet, employing all of the letters used in the Russian alphabet, and adding four letters of its own: Ӑӑ, Ӗӗ, Ҫҫ, Ӳӳ.
History
Chuvash is the most dissimilar of the Turkic languages and thus lacks intelligibility with the others. Its parent language — spoken by the Volga Bulghars in the Middle Ages — differs from all other Turkic languages so considerably that it is usually classified as a sister language of Proto-Turkic, rather than a daughter language, like the rest of the Turkic languages.
"Formerly, scholars considered Chuvash not properly a Turkic language at all but, rather, the only surviving representative of a separate subdivision of the Altaic languages probably spoken by the Huns" (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1997).
Modern Chuvash 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 |
Chuvash alphabet before 1938
| а | е | ы | и/і | у | ӳ | ă | ě | й | в | к | л | љ | м | н | њ | п | р | р́ | с | ç | т | т̌ | ђ | х | ш |
There are two dialects of Chuvash: Viryal or Upper (pronouncing an o, as in хола = town) and Anatri or Lower (pronouncing a u, as in хула = town). The literary language is based on the Lower dialect. Both Tatar and the Finnic languages have influenced the Chuvash language, as have Russian, Mari, Mongolian, Arabic, and Farsi, which have all added many words to the Chuvash lexicon.
The most ancient writing system, known as the Orkhon script, disappeared after the Volga Bulgars converted to Islam. Later, the Arabic alphabet was adopted. After the Mongol invasion, writing simply disappeared. The modern Chuvash alphabet was devised in 1873 by I. Ya. Yakovlev. In 1938, the alphabet underwent significant modification which brought it to its current form.
