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1924 poster in Turkmen (top, Arabic-based script) and Russian (bottom)

The Turkmen alphabet[a] refers to variants of the Latin alphabet, Cyrillic alphabet, or Arabic alphabet used for writing of the Turkmen language.

The modified variant of the Latin alphabet currently has an official status in Turkmenistan.

For centuries, literary Turkic tradition in Central Asia (Chagatai) revolved around the Arabic alphabet. At the start of the 20th century, when local literary conventions were to match colloquial variants of Turkic languages, and Turkmen-proper started to be written, it continued to use the Arabic script. In the 1920s, in Soviet Turkmenistan, issues and shortcomings of the Arabic alphabet for accurately representing Turkmen were identified and the orthography was refined (same as other Arabic-derived orthographies in Central Asia, such as Uzbek and Kazakh alphabets). But by 1928, due to state-policy, this orthography was discarded and the Latin script was adopted. In 1940, the Russian influence in Soviet Turkmenistan prompted a switch to a Cyrillic alphabet and a Turkmen Cyrillic alphabet (shown below in the table alongside the Latin) was created. When Turkmenistan became independent in 1991, President Saparmurat Niyazov immediately instigated a return to the Latin script. When it was reintroduced in 1993, it was supposed to use some unusual letters, such as the pound (£), dollar ($), yen (¥) and cent signs (¢),[1] but these were replaced by more conventional letter symbols in 1999.[2]

Turkmen is still often written with a modified variant of the Arabic alphabet in other countries where the language is spoken and where the Arabic script is dominant (such as Iran and Afghanistan).

Evolution

[edit]
Soviet stamp showing Turkmen costume (1963); the middle text is Turkmen Cyrillic, Türkmen halk geýimleri in Latin orthography
Latin Cyrillic,
1940–1993 		Arabic IPA
Current,
since 1999 		1993–1999 1992
(project) 		Jaꞑalif[3]
1929–1940 		Common Turkic alphabet Turkmen SSR
(1923–1929)[4] 		Iran and
Afghanistan[5]
A a А а آ / ـا آ / ـا [ɑ]
B b B ʙ B b Б б ب [b]
Ç ç C c Ç ç Ч ч چ [tʃ]
D d Д д د [d]
E e initial Э э
non-init. Е е 		اە / ە / ـە Initial: اِ or ا
End of syl.: ه
Else: ـِ / ـ 		[e]
Ä ä Ea ea Ә ә Ä ä Ә ә ٴا / ٴـا أ / ـأ [æ]
F f Ф ф ف [f]
G g G g Г г گ Front: ق
Back: گ 		[ɡ]
Ƣ ƣ Ğ ğ غ [ɣ~ʁ]
H h H h Х х ھ / ح Native: ە
Loanwords: ح 		[h]
X x خ [χ]
I i İ i И и ٴاېـ / ٴېـ / ٴې ایـ / یـ / ی [ɪ~i]
J j Ç ç C c Җ җ ج [dʒ]
Ž ž £ ſ Jh jh Ƶ ƶ J j Ж ж ژ [ʒ]
K k K k К к ك ك / ک [k]
Q q ق [q]
L l Л л ل [l]
M m М м م [m]
N n Н н ن [n]
Ň ň Ñ ñ Ng ng Ꞑ ꞑ Ñ ñ Ң ң ڭ نگ [ŋ]
O o О о او / و اوْ / وْ [o]
Ö ö Q q Ө ө Ö ö Ө ө ٴاو / ٴو اؤ / ؤ [œ]
P p П п پ [p]
R r Р р ر [r]
S s С с Native: س
Loanwords: ث / ص 		[θ]
Ş ş $ ¢ Sh sh Ş ş Ш ш ش [ʃ]
T t Т т ت Native: ت
Loanwords: ط 		[t]
U u У у اۇ / ۇ اۇ / ۇ [u]
Ü ü V v Y y Ü ü Ү ү ٴاۇ / ٴۇ اۆ / ۆ [y]
W w V v В в ۋ و [w~β]
Y y X x Ь ь I ı Ы ы اېـ / ېـ / ې اؽـ / ؽـ / ؽ [ɯ~ɨ]
Ý ý ¥ ÿ Y y J j Y y Й й یـ / ی [j]
Z z З з ز Native: ظ
Loanwords: ض / ذ / ز 		[ð]

In the historic Turkmen SSR Arabic orthography (1923–1929), a small uppercase Hamza was used for indicating front vowels when vowel sounds can't be perceived from other vowels or consonants in a word, very similar to the use of Hamza in Kazakh Arabic alphabet. In Turkmen, there are 9 vowels, 8 of which formed 4 pairs in the Turkmen SSR Arabic orthograhpy.[4] Below are these pairs, the back vowel and its corresponding front vowel:

  • A a / Ä ä (both written with alef, ـا)
  • O o / Ö ö (both written with vav, او / و)
  • U u / Ü ü (both written with vav+damma, اۇ / ۇ)
  • Y y / I i (both written with ya majhul, اېـ / ېـ / ې)
  • E e (Written with he in final position, اە / ـە / ە)

If a word contains front vowels, a small uppercase Hamza was used; except if the word also contained either the vowel E e (Written with he in final position, اە / ـە / ە), or the consonants for [k] or [g] (Written with kaf and gaf, كـ / ـكـ / ـك; گـ / ـگـ / ـگ). As per Turkmen vowel harmony rules, these three letters are only accompanied with front vowels, thus the small uppercase Hamza will be redundant and is not written.[4]

Arabic script

[edit]

In Turkmenistan, Turkmen was primarily written in the Arabic script prior to latinisation in the Soviet Union. There were earlier attempts at standardisation of the Turkmen Arabic script, with rules and vowel conventions similar to those used by other Turkic languages of Russian Turkistan, such as Kazakh, Karakalpak, Kyrgyz, and Uzbek; however, all Arabic-based orthographies were eventually banned by Soviet authorities in 1929.[4][6][7]

In Iran and Afghanistan, the Turkmen Arabic script remains in use. In Iran, specifically, the development of a modern standardized Perso-Arabic alphabet for Turkmen has been ongoing for the past four decades. It is based on the original Persian alphabet with slight modifications. It was first developed by Dr. Hamid Notqi and published in the Iranian-Azerbaijani Varlyq magazine. Since then, this system has been adopted by Iranian-Turkmens, and has been used for the publication of Turkmen-language publications such as Yaprak and Sahra,[citation needed] as well as by the Turkish State Media TRT.[8] In 2010, the Iranian-Turkmen literaturist and linguist Mahmyt Atagazly compiled the alphabet in a booklet called "Guideline for Writing Turkmen Correctly" (Persian: راهنمای نوشتار درست ترکمنی; Turkmen: تۆرکمن یازۇو قادالاری, romanized: Türkmen Ýazuw Kadalary). In this booklet, not only has Atagazly presented the alphabet, he has also reviewed the phonology of the Turkmen language and the rules of writing Turkmen to reflect this phonology accurately.[5]

Vowels

[edit]

In the Turkmen Arabic alphabet, 9 vowels are defined.

Rounded Unrounded
Close Open Close Open
Back
یوْغیٛن چِکیمی سِس‌لِر
ýogyn çekimli sesler 		Arabic اوُ / وُ اوْ / وْ ایٛ / یٛ آ / ‍ـا
Latin U u O o Y y A a
IPA [u] [o] [ɯ] [ɑ]
Front
اینچه چِکیمی سِس‌لِر
inçe çekimli sesler 		Arabic اۆ / ۆ اؤ / ؤ ای / ی اِ / ـِ / ه أ / ـأ
Latin Ü ü Ö ö I i E e Ä ä
IPA [y] [ø] [i] [ɛ] [æ]

Vowel Harmony

[edit]

Like other Turkic languages, Turkmen has a system of vowel harmony. Turkmen's system of vowel harmony is primarily a front/back system. This means that all vowels in a word must be ones that are pronounced either at the front or at the back of the mouth. In Turkmen there are two suffixes that make a plural: ـلِر ler after front vowels, and ـلار lar after back vowels. The same variety of options for suffixes exist across the board in Turkmen. Here is how vowel harmony works, in an example of a word in which the vowels are all frontal:

  • The word for dog is ایت it, and the pluralized form is ایتلِر itler (not ایتلار itlar).
  • The word for four is دؤرت dört, and the word for all four of us is دؤردیمیز dördimiz.

And below are examples for back vowels:

  • The word for mountain is داغ dag; thus, the word for mountains is داغلار daglar (not داغلر dagler).

Another sort of vowel harmony that exists in Turkmen is the system in which each syllable is required to have one, and only one vowel. This rule even applies to loanwords, who have their pronunciation altered in order to match this rule.

Vowel rounding

[edit]

In Turkmen there is a rule whereby words do not end in rounded vowels (unlike in Azerbaijani, Turkish, or Kyrgyz).

The round vowels اوْ o and اؤ ö can only exist in the first syllable. Even if they are heard in pronunciation in other syllables, they are written as ـا a and ــِـ ە e, respectively. Likewise, the round vowels اوُ u and اۆ ü can only exist in the first and second syllables.

Compound words, as well as loanwords, are exceptions to these rules.

Vowel orthography

[edit]

Of the two forms of the vowels above, some of them happen to have the letter ا (alif) in one of their forms, but not the other. These vowels, if at the beginning of the word, will universally be accompanied with the alif, but if they happen to be in the middle or end of a word, then the alif will be dropped. E.g., the vowel corresponding to the Latin letter u is written as اوُ in initial positions. The examples below for words including this vowel are as follows:

  • The word for flour is اوُن un (and not وُن).
  • The word for wheat is بوُغدای bugdaý (and not باوُغدای).

In Turkmen there are two types of syllables: open-ended syllables (ending in a vowel) and close-ended syllables. Open-ended syllables are ones that end in a vowel, i.e. they are in a V or cV form. Close-ended syllables are those that end in a consonant, i.e. they are in a Vc or cVc form. This generally does not matter, with the exception of the vowel that represents the same sound as the Latin letter e. If the syllable is close-ended, the diacritic form of the vowel ــِـ is used. But if the syllable is open-ended, the ە form is used (similar to how this letter is used as a vowel in Kurdish and Uyghur). Below are examples for the two:

  • The word dessan ('story') is broken down to two close-ended syllables, des-san. Thus, the diacritic form of the vowel e is used, and the word is written in the Turkmen Arabic alphabet as دِسسان [d̪es.sɑ́n]. Similar to Persian and Arabic orthographies, diacritics are standardly omitted from writing.
  • The word erteki is broken down to three syllables: er-te-ki, with two open-ended syllables. The e vowel in the second syllable is written as ە, and thus, the word is spelt ارتەکی [eɾ.t̪e.kɪ́] (not ارتِکی).

There is one exception to this rule, and that is the suffix -leri, which indicates that a noun is plural and in an objective or possessive case. Despite the suffix consisting of an open-ended syllable [-le-], it is written as ـلری (and not ـلەری).

The Latin letter a is generally written as آ / ـا. This is universally true for words of Turkmen origin. However, in Persian or Arabic loanwords, which have been incorporated in the Turkmen language for centuries and already have a proper and familiar spelling, retain their original spelling. In Persian or Arabic, the same sound can be represented either by the diacritic ــَـ, or by the letter ع, either with diacritic as عَـ or as عا.

Consonants

[edit]

While Turkmen Latin alphabet has 9 vowels and 21 consonants, the Turkmen Arabic alphabet has 32 consonants, as there are sounds that are represented by more than one consonant. The two letters, نگ are treated as one letter, as they are pronounced as a single sound.

No. Letter Latin equivalent IPA Example Latin spelling Meaning
1 ب B b [b] باش baş 'head'
2 پ P p [p] پالتا palta 'ax'
3 ت T t [t̪] تانا tana 'calf'
4 ث S s [θ] ثمر semer 'benefit'
5 ج J j [dʒ] آجیٛ ajy 'bitter'
6 چ Ç ç [tʃ] چکیچ çekiç 'hammer'
7 ح H h [h~x] حو‌ْراز horaz 'rooster'
8 خ H h [χ] خان han 'khan'
9 د D d [d̪] داغ dag 'mountain'
10 ذ Z z [ð] ذلیل zelil 'humiliated'
11 ر R r [ɾ~r] بارماق barmak 'finger'
12 ز Z z [ð] آز az 'a little'
13 ژ Ž ž [ʒ] آژدار aždar 'dragon'
14 س S s [θ] سن sen 'thou, you (sg.)'
15 ش Ş ş [ʃ] آشاق aşak 'down'
16 ص S s [θ] صنم Senem 'Senem'
17 ض Z z [ð] ضرر zerer 'loss'
18 ط T t [t̪] حاط hat 'line; letter'
19 ظ Z z [ð] ظالم zalym 'tyrant'
20 ع [ʔ] عزیز eziz 'dear'
21 غ G g [ɣ~ʁ] باغ bag 'garden'
22 ف F f [ɸ] نفس nefes 'breath'
23 ق G g [ɡ~ɢ] قارا gara 'black'
K k [k~q] قاقا kaka 'father'
24 ك / ک K k [k] کر ker 'deaf'
25 گ G g [ɡ~ɢ] گل gel 'come!' (imperative)
26 ل L l [l~ɫ] لال lal 'mute'
27 م M m [m] من men 'I, me'
28 ن N n [n] نار nar 'pomegranate'
29 نگ Ň ň [ŋ~ɴ] منگ meň '[skin] mole'
30 و W w [w] آو aw 'hunt'
31 ه / هـ H h [h] هانی hany 'Where is [it]?'
32 ی Ý ý [j] یاز ýaz 'spring'

Notes

[edit]

Due to final-obstruent devoicing, native Turkmen words do end in the letters ب b, د d or ج j. Instead, the letters پ p, ت t and چ ç are used in their place. However, this rule does not extend to loanwords, such as کبا'ب kebap. If as part of a suffix, a vowel is added to the end of a word ending in پ p, this final letter is then replaced with ب b instead. This rule does not apply to monosyllabic words. If the letter ب b is between two vowels, its pronunciation would be in between b [b] and w [β]. If a suffix is attatched to a stem ending in چ ç, the consonant becomes voiced and the final letter is replaced with ج j. (E.g., دۆرتگۆچ dürtgüç > دۆرتگۆجی dürtgüji.) This rule, however, does not apply to monosyllable words like ساچ saç 'hair'.

The letter غ is never used at the beginning of a word, and it is only used in words where the Latin letter g produces a rhotic sound; otherwise, the letter ق is used. This rule does not extend to loanwords.

The Turkmen Arabic script also uses some letters exclusively for loanwords (even with the same phoneme):

  • H: ح is used only for loanwords; native words use ه.
  • S: The letters ث and ص are only for loanwords; native words use س.
  • T: ط is used only for loanwords; native words use ت.
  • Z: Three letters are used for loanwords, being ذ ,ض, and ظ. Native words use ز.

Tashdid

[edit]

Similar to Persian and Arabic, the tashdid diacritic ــّـ can be used to mark that a consonant is to be geminated, functionally similar to writing double consonants in Italian and Finnish. E.g.,

  • قصّه kyssa
  • ینگّه ýeňňe

There are two exceptions to where tashdid can be used. Firstly, if the double consonant is produced as a result of creating a compound word or addition of a suffix, then tashdid cannot be used and both consonants need to be written. For example, the word سۆممک sümmek is produced by adding the suffix -mek to the verb root süm. Thus, the correct spelling would be سۆممک (and not سۆمّک).

The second exception is, if a word has two consecutive identical consonants as a result of shift in pronunciation of a word, then both consonants need to be written. For example, the word بوْسسان bossan cannot be written as بوْسَان. This word is a Persian loanword, originally written as بوستان.

Soviet latinisation campaign

[edit]
Main article: Latinisation in the Soviet Union

After Turkmenistan was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1921, the Turkmen Arabic alphabet was subsequently banned by Soviet authorities in an effort to limit influence from other parts of the Muslim world, and to compete with the Western word in terms of modernisation. As a result, a new Latin-based alphabet was introduced by 1929:

Jaꞑalif (1929–1940)
A a B ʙ C c Ç ç D d E e Ә ә F f G g Ƣ ƣ H h I i
J j K k L l M m N n Ꞑ ꞑ O o Ө ө P p Q q R r S s
Ş ş T t U u V v X x Y y Z z Ƶ ƶ Ь ь

Cyrillic script

[edit]

After 1940, the Cyrillic alphabet was introduced, replacing the Yañalif-style alphabet. Between 1940 and 1994, the Turkmen language in the Turkmen SSR was exclusively in the Cyrillic script, while the Turkmen language in Iran and Afghanistan was still written in the Arabic script. After Turkmenistan gained independence from the Soviet Union, then-leader Saparmurat Niyazov devised a new Latin-based alphabet and made it the official script for Turkmen in 1994. However, particularly among older folks, the Cyrillic alphabet remains just as popular as the Latin alphabet.

The Turkmen Cyrillic alphabet
А а Б б В в Г г Д д Е е Ё ё Ж ж Җ җ З з И и Й й
К к Л л М м Н н Ң ң О о Ө ө П п Р р С с Т т У у
Ү ү Ф ф Х х (Ц ц) Ч ч Ш ш (Щ щ) (Ъ ъ) Ы ы (Ь ь) Э э Ә ә
Ю ю Я я

Letter names and pronunciation

[edit]

The Turkmen alphabet has 30 letters.

Letter Name IPA Arabic
A, a a /ɑ ɑː/ آ / ع
B, b be /b/ ب
Ç, ç çe /ʧ/ چ
D, d de /d/ د
E, e e /e/ اِ
Ä, ä ä /æ/ أ
F, f fe /f~ɸ/ ف
G, g ge /ɡ/ گ
G, g ge /ʁ~ɣ/ غ
H, h he /χ~x/ خ
H, h he /h/ ھ / ح
I, i i /i/ ای
J, j je /ʤ/ ج
Ž, ž že /ʒ/ ژ
K, k ka /k/ ک
K, k ka /q/ ق
L, l el /l/ ل
M, m em /m/ م
N, n en /n/ ن
Ň, ň eň /ŋ/ نگ
O, o o /o/ وْ
Ö, ö ö /ø/ ؤ
P, p pe /p/ پ
R, r er /ɾ/ ر
S, s es /θ/ س / ث / ص
Ş, ş şe /ʃ/ ش
T, t te /t/ ت / ط
U, u u /u/ اۇ
Ü, ü ü /y/ اۆ
W, w we /w~β/ و
Y, y y /ɯ/ اؽ
Ý, ý ýe /j/ ی
Z, z ze /ð/ ز / ذ / ض / ظ

The names for Cc, Qq, Vv and Xx are se, ku, türk we and iks, respectively.

Sample text

[edit]

Article 1 of the UDHR:

Latin script
(1999–present) 		Arabic script Latin script
(used 1993–1999) 		Latin script
(used 1992–1993) 		Cyrillic script
Hemme adamlar öz mertebesi we hukuklary boýunça deň ýagdaýda dünýä inýärler. Olara aň hem wyždan berlendir we olar bir-birleri bilen doganlyk ruhundaky garaýyşda bolmalydyrlar. هممه آداملار اؤز مرتبه‌سی و حوُقوُقلارؽ بوْیوُنچا دنگ یاغدای‌دا دۆنیأ اینیأرلر. اوْلارا آنگ هم وؽجدان برلرن‌دیر و اوْلار بیر-بیرلری بیلن دوْغانلیق روُحوُن‌داقؽ قارایؽش‌دا بوْلمالؽ‌دؽرلار. Hemme adamlar öz mertebesi we hukuklary boÿunça deñ ÿagdaÿda dünÿä inÿärler. Olara añ hem wyſdan berlendir we olar bir-birleri bilen doganlyk ruhundaky garaÿy¢da bolmalydyrlar. Hemme adamlar qz mertebesi we hukuklarx boyunca deng yagdayda dvnyea inyearler. Olara ang hem wxjhdan berlendir we olar bir-birleri bilen doganlxk ruhundakx garayxshda bolmalxdxrlar. Хемме адамлар өз мертебеси ве хукуклары боюнча дең ягдайда дүнйә инйәрлер. Олара аң хем выждан берлендир ве олар бир-бирлери билен доганлык рухундакы гарайышда болмалыдырлар.
Täzelip
(used 1929–1940) 		Arabic script
(Turkmen SSR edition)
(used 1923–1929) 		Common Turkic alphabet IPA transcription Translation
Hemme adamlar өz merteʙesi ve huquqlarь ʙojunca deꞑ jaƣdajda dynjә injәrler. Olara aꞑ hem vьƶdan ʙerlendir ve olar ʙir-ʙirleri ʙilen doƣanlьq ruhundaqь qarajьşda ʙolmalьdьrlar. ھەممە آداملار ٴاوز مەرتەبەسې ۋە حۇقۇقلارې بویۇنچا دەڭ یاغدای‌دا ٴدۇنیا اېنیارلەر. اولارا آڭ ھەم وېجدان بەرلەن‌دېر ۋە اولار ٴبېر-بېرلەرې بېلەن دوغانلېق رۇحۇن‌داقې قارایېش‌دا بولمالې‌دېرلار. Hemme adamlar öz mertebesi ve huquqları boyunça deñ yağdayda dünyä inyärler. Olara añ hem vıjdan berlendir ve olar bir-birleri bilen doğanlıq ruhundaqı qarayışda bolmalıdırlar. [he̞mˈme̞ ˌɑːd̪ɑmˈɫ̪ɑɾ ø̞ːð ˌme̞ɾt̪e̞be̞ˈθɪ βe̞ ˌhʊqʊqɫ̪ɑˈɾɯ ˌbo̞jʊn̪ˈt͡ʃɑ d̪e̞ŋ ˌjɑʁd̪ɑjˈd̪ɑ d̪ʏn̪ˈjæː ˌiːn̪jæːɾˈl̪e̞ɾ ‖ ˌo̞ɫ̪ɑˈɾɑ ɑːŋ he̞m βɯʒˈd̪ɑːn̪ ˌbe̞ɾl̪e̞n̪ˈd̪ɪɾ βe̞ o̞ˈɫ̪ɑɾ ˌbiːɾˌbiːɾl̪e̞ˈɾɪ bɪˈl̪e̞n̪ ˌd̪o̞ʁɑn̪ˈɫ̪ɯq ˌruːhʊn̪d̪ɑːˈqɯ ˌɢɑɾɑjɯʃt̪ɑ ˌbo̞ɫmɑɫ̪ɯd̪ɯɾˈɫ̪ɑɾ ‖] All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

See also

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Notes

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References

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[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Turkmen alphabet

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
The Turkmen alphabet denotes the sequence of scripts utilized to transcribe the Turkmen language, a Turkic tongue of the Oghuz branch native to the Turkmens inhabiting Central Asia, with approximately 7 million speakers concentrated in Turkmenistan. Its evolution mirrors geopolitical shifts: the Perso-Arabic script predominated from roughly the 11th century through 1928, accommodating Islamic literary traditions; a Latin-based system followed briefly from 1928 to 1939 amid early Soviet efforts to standardize Turkic orthographies; Cyrillic supplanted it in 1940 under Stalinist policy to reinforce Russification, persisting until 1993; and post-independence, a new Latin variant was decreed in 1993 to assert national sovereignty and phonetic fidelity over Cyrillic's imposed phonemic mismatches. The contemporary Latin alphabet comprises 30 letters—9 vowels (A, Ä, E, I, O, Ö, U, Ü, Ý) and 21 consonants—incorporating diacritics like breve on N (Ň) and acute on Y (Ý) to denote unique sounds absent in standard English or Russian, while omitting Q, V, and X as phonemically extraneous. This orthography, refined from an initial 1993 iteration that briefly employed unconventional symbols such as the dollar sign for /ʒ/, prioritizes vowel harmony and agglutinative structure inherent to Turkmen morphology, facilitating literacy rates above 98% in official contexts despite transitional challenges like dual-script signage in the 1990s. Its adoption underscores a deliberate divergence from Soviet linguistic legacies, aligning instead with pan-Turkic trends toward Latin scripts for cultural reconnection, though Cyrillic lingers informally among older generations and in neighboring regions with Turkmen minorities.

Historical Development

Arabic Script Period (Pre-1928)

The Perso-Arabic script was adopted by Oghuz groups, forebears of the Turkmen, in the 10th to 11th centuries amid Islamization, supplanting prior oral and runic traditions with a system suited for religious and administrative recording. This adaptation drew from Persian modifications to the abjad, incorporating diacritics over letters like و and ي to approximate Turkic vowels, while repurposing or inventing graphemes for consonants such as /g/ and /ŋ/ not native to , thereby enabling notation of —a core phonological feature distinguishing . Despite these enhancements, the script's inherent limitations persisted: short vowels remained largely unindicated, compelling readers to infer them from syntactic context, lexical familiarity, and harmony patterns, which fostered reading ambiguities especially in vernacular texts divergent from classical Persian or norms. Such orthographic constraints aligned with broader Turkic practices, where script fidelity prioritized over phonetic precision for mass transmission. Empirical traces in surviving manuscripts underscore the script's role in codifying Turkmen cultural continuity, as seen in 14th-century poetry attributed to Imad al-Din Nasimi and 18th-century collections of Magtymguly Pyragy's verses, which transcribed Sufi mysticism, folk epics like Koroghlu, and Islamic lore. Repositories in hold hundreds of such Arabic-script items, including over 400 Islamic manuscripts in state libraries, evidencing how the system sustained oral heritage in written form against nomadic disruptions until externally driven reforms in the 1920s.

Soviet-Era Latin Script (1928-1940)

In 1928, the adopted a Latin-based script known as Yañı Latin Yazyjy as part of the Soviet Union's broader latinization campaign, which sought to replace Arabic-derived alphabets across Turkic republics to sever ties with Islamic religious texts and traditions, facilitate mass drives, and align with modernization efforts inspired by Turkey's simultaneous script reform. This policy, formalized under the New Economic Policy's (korenizatsiya) phase, prioritized phonetic representation over historical continuity, enabling easier access to Soviet materials while limiting comprehension of pre-revolutionary Arabic-script literature, including the . The alphabet drew from the Unified Turkic Latin Alphabet (Yanalif) model but incorporated Turkmen-specific adaptations, featuring 9 vowels (a, e, i, o, ö, u, ü, ý, ä) to capture the language's and front-back distinctions, alongside 21 consonants including digraphs and modified letters such as ç for /tʃ/, c for /dʒ/, and ŋ for the velar nasal, ensuring close phonetic accuracy for Turkmen's agglutinative structure without reliance on ligatures or diacritics. This promoted orthographic consistency, diverging from the more conservative script's inefficiencies for Turkic vowel systems, and supported the of Turkmen as a literary language during the First Linguistic Congress of in 1926. Implementation involved aggressive campaigns, with the Turkmen State Publishing House established in late 1924 expanding to produce primers and children's books in the new script by the early 1930s, contributing to rising literacy rates amid low pre-Soviet baselines through and (liquidation of illiteracy) programs targeting nomadic populations. Printing presses proliferated, enabling the first widespread Turkmen periodicals and texts that reflected Soviet ideological content, though exact literacy gains remained modest due to rural resistance and purges of local intellectuals. The script's abandonment in 1940 stemmed not from orthographic deficiencies—its phonetic fidelity had proven effective for literacy—but from Stalin's late-1930s pivot toward Russification, which viewed Latin alphabets as fostering pan-Turkic nationalism and Western sympathies, prompting a uniform shift to Cyrillic to reinforce Moscow's cultural dominance and integrate non-Russian populations linguistically under Russian influence. This reversal, enacted amid the Great Purge, prioritized political control over prior autonomist policies, resulting in transitional confusion but aligning with the USSR's consolidation of power.

Cyrillic Script Imposition (1940-1991)

In May 1940, the Council of People's Commissars of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic approved a resolution mandating the transition from the Latin script to a modified Cyrillic alphabet, aligning with broader Soviet policies to standardize non-Slavic languages under Russian linguistic hegemony. This shift replaced the pan-Turkic-oriented Latin alphabet, which had facilitated cross-ethnic literacy among Turkic peoples, with a Cyrillic variant incorporating additional characters such as Ң (for the velar nasal), Ө (for front rounded vowels), and Ү (for close front rounded vowels) to approximate Turkmen phonology, though the core structure prioritized compatibility with Russian orthographic norms. The adoption effectively severed textual continuity with pre-Soviet Arabic-script literature and the short-lived Latin period, as Soviet authorities systematically phased out Latin-type printing presses and curricula by the early 1940s, rendering prior materials obsolete and inaccessible without transliteration. The Cyrillic imposition served as a mechanism of cultural assimilation, embedding Russian dominance by easing the influx of loanwords—estimated to have increased Turkmen vocabulary's Russian-derived terms by over 20% in technical and administrative domains during the Soviet era—and distorting native phonological representation, particularly vowel harmony, through Cyrillic's inherent bias toward Slavic sound systems. Empirical evidence from post-independence script reforms reveals the script's role in eroding ties to Turkic linguistic heritage, as Turkmenistan's 1993 return to Latin was explicitly framed as reclaiming national sovereignty from Moscow's influence, with literacy rates in Cyrillic-era texts dropping sharply among youth due to perceived foreignness. Soviet claims of "scientific progress" in standardization masked coercive uniformity, as archival records indicate destruction or warehousing of Arabic and Latin manuscripts to prevent cultural revivalism, fostering dependency on Russian intermediaries for historical access. This Russification extended beyond , with Cyrillic's adoption correlating to suppressed Turkic purism movements; for instance, native terms for and were supplanted by Russified calques, reducing the language's and contributing to a generational disconnect from pre-1920s literary traditions. The policy's causal impact on is underscored by the rapid post-1991 push for Latinization, where surveys of Turkmen educators noted heightened cultural alienation under Cyrillic, prompting deliberate efforts to revive Turkic etymological awareness absent during the Soviet period. While adapted Cyrillic allowed functional , its prioritization of Russian compatibility over indigenous perpetuated linguistic subordination, as evidenced by persistent orthographic mismatches for Turkmen's agglutinative morphology compared to the more flexible Latin precursors.

Post-Independence Latinization (1991-Present)

Following independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Turkmenistan under President Saparmurat Niyazov pursued a return to the Latin script as a symbol of national sovereignty and cultural independence from Russian influence, prioritizing political de-Russification over immediate practical considerations such as literacy transition costs. On April 12, 1993, Niyazov issued a presidential decree approving a new Latin-based alphabet consisting of 30 letters, intended to replace the Cyrillic script entirely. This move echoed earlier Soviet-era Latinization efforts but was framed as a rejection of Russification, though implementation proved challenging due to the entrenched use of Cyrillic in education and administration. The initial 1993 alphabet underwent revisions to enhance compatibility with international computing standards. In 1995, parliament approved updates to the "New Turkmen Alphabet" (Täze Elipbiýi), refining letter forms for better typographic alignment with Turkic norms. Further modifications in 1999 replaced non-standard symbols—such as currency-like glyphs (e.g., $ for Ş, ¥ for Ý)—with diacritics like Ə (schwa), Ž (voiced postalveolar fricative), and Ň (palatal nasal), drawing from Central European character sets to facilitate digital adoption amid limited technological infrastructure. These changes aimed to standardize the script but highlighted tensions between nationalistic design and global usability, as the revisions constrained options to legacy encodings like Windows-1250. A state program decreed in 1993 targeted full transition to Latin by January 1, 2000, mandating its use in official documents, , and media to enforce cultural autonomy. However, delays persisted due to high costs for reprinting materials, teacher retraining, and public resistance rooted in Cyrillic familiarity, resulting in incomplete adoption even after the deadline. Niyazov's authoritarian imposed enforcement measures, including restrictions on Cyrillic publications in by the late and directives to phase out Cyrillic texts in libraries and schools, though dual-script usage lingered informally among older generations and in private contexts. In recent years, Turkmenistan's Latin script has intersected with regional initiatives for Turkic unity. As an observer in the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), the country participated in discussions culminating in the OTS's September 11, 2024, approval of a 34-letter common Latin-based alphabet to promote linguistic heritage across member states. Turkmenistan's 30-letter system aligns partially with this framework—sharing core diacritics—but its non-member observer status has limited deeper integration, preserving national variations amid ongoing domestic implementation gaps.

Script Details

Arabic Alphabet Features

The Perso-Arabic script adapted for Turkmen prior to 1928 consisted of the 28 core Arabic consonant letters augmented by four Persian additions—پ (pē for /p/), چ (čīm for /t͡ʃ/), ژ (žē for /ʒ/), and گ (gāf for /g/)—to represent phonemes absent in classical Arabic, alongside combinations or modified forms for distinct Turkic sounds such as the velar nasal /ŋ/ (often rendered as نغ). The letter ق (qāf) typically mapped to the voiced velar fricative /ɣ/, while uvular /q/ might share ق or align with ك (kāf) in varied regional practices. Short vowels were largely omitted in an abjad system, with diacritics (ḥarakāt) employed sparingly outside religious or initial learning contexts; long vowels relied on mater lectionis indicators like ا (alif for /aː/), و (wāw for /uː oː/), and ی (yāʾ for /iː eː/), but this provided no systematic notation for Turkmen's front-back and rounded-unrounded distinctions. This consonantal bias engendered significant orthographic deficiencies for Turkmen's agglutinative morphology, where roots combine with numerous suffixes whose forms depend on —yet harmony cues were absent, forcing reliance on reader intuition to insert appropriate vowels (e.g., a consonantal like گ ل - ي - ل ر might ambiguously parse as "gelenler" 'those who come' or variant harmony mismatches without contextual disambiguation). Such ambiguities proliferated in complex suffixed forms, undermining unambiguous essential to Turkic , as multiple vowel patterns could theoretically fit the same consonants, resolvable only through linguistic familiarity or surrounding . The script's structure aligned better with Semitic root-based morphology and religious recitation, where consonantal frameworks sufficed for Quranic memorization in or Chagatai literary variants, but faltered for secular demanding full phonetic fidelity to convey agglutinative nuances, thereby constraining to or clerical circles. Pre-1928 in Turkmen regions hovered below 10%, predominantly in non- languages like Persian or , with Turkmen writing limited by these representational gaps that impeded broader educational access.

Cyrillic Alphabet Adaptation

The Turkmen Cyrillic alphabet was adapted in 1940 from the Russian Cyrillic script, incorporating 32 letters to represent the language's phonemic inventory, including modifications for Turkic consonants absent in Russian. Unique additions included Ө for the front rounded vowel /ø/, Ң for the velar nasal /ŋ/, Ү for /y/, Җ for /d͡ʒ/, and Ҳ for /x/, while retaining standard letters like Щ to denote the postalveolar affricate sequence /ʃtʃ/ in compound realizations. This adaptation extended the base 33-letter Russian alphabet by prioritizing phonetic coverage for Turkmen's nine-vowel system and 21 consonants, though it inherited Russian graphemes that imperfectly aligned with native sounds, such as using Ы for /ɯ/ without distinguishing length consistently. Orthographic conventions for geminates—lengthened consonants phonemic in Turkmen—employed doubled letters (e.g., КК for /kː/), functioning analogously to the tashdid but without diacritics, which simplified printing yet risked ambiguity in handwriting or rapid transcription. representation lacked dedicated diacritics for or length, relying on letters like А /ɑ/, О /o/, У /u/ for back vowels and Э /e/, Ө /ø/, Ү /y/ for front, with enforced implicitly through selection rather than explicit marking; this approach, while economical, introduced inconsistencies when accommodating loanwords or dialectal variants, as Russian-influenced norms sometimes favored etymological over phonological spelling. The script's heavy dependence on Russian templates obscured distinct Turkic features, such as precise rounding and triggers, leading to elevated error rates in literacy acquisition where readers misapplied Russian palatalization rules to Turkmen words, thereby complicating accurate reproduction of harmonic sequences. The May 1940 adoption decree by the Turkmen SSR necessitated rewriting thousands of textbooks, primers, and official documents within a year, embedding Russian lexical influences and accelerating linguistic by standardizing under Moscow's orthographic framework. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, the adaptation ensured typographic uniformity across Soviet nationalities, streamlining cross-republic printing and administrative correspondence despite the phonological trade-offs.

Modern Latin Alphabet Structure

The modern Latin alphabet for the Turkmen language comprises 30 letters, extending the basic Latin script with diacritics and additional characters to encode its vowel harmony and consonant distinctions. These include standard letters A, B, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U, W, Y, Z, supplemented by Ä (for /æ/), Ç (for /tʃ/), Ň (for /ŋ/), Ö (for /ø/), Ş (for /ʃ/), Ü (for /y/), Ž (for /ʒ/), Ý (for /ɨ/), and Ə (for /ə/). The ordering follows a modified Latin sequence, with Ä placed after E, Ž after J, and other diacritics integrated alphabetically, as used in dictionaries and collation systems. Standardized in 1999 via Turkmen Standard TDS 565, the script replaced the eccentric 1993 version's use of currency symbols (such as £ for /ʒ/, $ for /ʃ/, and ¥ for /j/) with conventional Latin extensions compatible with ISO 8859-2 and Central European codepages, prioritizing keyboard input and digital processing efficiency over aesthetic uniformity. This pragmatic adaptation, decreed under President Niyazov's centralized authority, aligns orthography more closely with Latin-based systems in neighboring like Turkish and Azerbaijani, empirically supporting cross-linguistic legibility for shared roots and loanwords without reliance on Cyrillic's Russified mappings. Despite these gains, structural inconsistencies persist in practice, with hybrid Latin-Cyrillic texts common due to uneven enforcement and generational literacy gaps.
VowelsRepresentationExample Sound
A a/a/Father-like
Ä ä/æ/Cat-like
E e/e/Bed
Ə ə/ə/Uh (schwa)
I i/i/
O o/o/More
Ö ö/ø/French eu
U u/u/Boot
Ü ü/y/French u
Ý ý/ɨ/Roses (Russian)
Y y/ɯ/Turkish ı
Consonants feature voiced/voiceless pairs and affricates like Ç (/tʃ/) and J (/dʒ/), with Ň denoting the velar nasal /ŋ/ absent in basic Latin, enabling precise phonetic mapping without digraphs that could obscure etymological transparency in Turkic derivations.

Phonological and Orthographic Features

Vowel System and Harmony

The Turkmen language possesses a nine-vowel inventory, comprising /ɑ/, /æ/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /ø/, /u/, /y/, and /ɯ/, which are rendered in the modern Latin orthography as a, ä, e, i, o, ö, u, ü, and y respectively. These vowels exhibit phonemic distinctions in height, frontness/backness, and lip rounding, with length not contrastive in the orthography despite acoustic evidence of variation in stressed positions. Vowel harmony enforces strict assimilation rules across boundaries, aligning with the root vowel's front/back and rounded/unrounded features to maintain phonological coherence in agglutinative derivations. For example, the appears as -a after back vowels like a or o (e.g., gül-e "to the flower" vs. gülä "to the rose") but shifts to -e or -ä following front vowels such as e or ö. This mechanism, operative in over 90% of native per typological analyses of Turkic systems, ensures morphological transparency by predicting forms from root vowels, thereby minimizing ambiguity in complex word formations involving multiple affixes. In loanwords, particularly Russian borrowings introduced during the Soviet period, harmony is frequently violated, yielding disharmonic clusters (e.g., partiya "party" with back a after front i), which disrupt native patterns and necessitate compensatory adjustments in pronunciation or orthographic adaptation. The modern Latin script's diacritics explicitly mark front rounded vowels (ö, ü) and the low front ä, enabling precise harmony encoding absent in the defective Arabic abjad, where vowel diacritics were inconsistently applied and often omitted. Soviet Cyrillic adaptations, relying on digraphs and Russian-derived letters like я for ä and ы for y, inadequately captured these nuances, fostering orthographic inconsistencies that contradicted assertions of its phonetic superiority for non-Slavic languages.

Consonant Inventory

The Turkmen language features a consonant inventory of 21 phonemes, encompassing stops, fricatives, affricates, nasals, liquids, and approximants, which the modern Latin orthography (adopted officially in 1993) represents with dedicated letters to achieve one-to-one phoneme-to-grapheme correspondence. This precision addresses limitations in prior scripts: the Arabic alphabet (pre-1928) often merged distinct Turkic consonants like /ŋ/ with /n/ or approximated uvulars inadequately using ق (qāf) for both /q/ and /ɣ/, resulting in orthographic ambiguities and increased homophony in written texts. Similarly, the Soviet Cyrillic script (1940–1991) relied on adaptations such as Ж for /ʒ/ and Ч for /tʃ/, but lacked unique symbols for /ŋ/ (using Нг digraph) and treated palatalized forms inconsistently, contributing to representational inefficiencies for Turkic phonotactics. Key consonants include affricates /tʃ/ (Latin Ç, Cyrillic Ч) and /dʒ/ (Latin J, Cyrillic Дж or Җ), uvular/velar sounds like /q/ or back /g/ variants (Latin G in positional use, Cyrillic Г), and the velar nasal /ŋ/ (Latin Ň, Cyrillic Нг). The inventory lacks a phonemic contrast between /h/ and absence in many contexts, with /h/ (Latin H, Cyrillic Х) appearing primarily in loanwords or as a historical remnant rather than a core distinctive feature, unlike in languages with robust glottal fricatives. Gemination, or lengthened consonants, is marked orthographically by doubling (e.g., -tt- for /t:/), reflecting phonological length distinctions without altering the basic inventory.
Phoneme (IPA)Latin LetterExample WordNotes on Script Evolution
/p/Ppul ("money")Consistent across scripts; Arabic ب.
/b/Bbäy ("rich")Arabic ب; no voicing issues.
/t/Ttaý ("foal")Arabic ت; geminates as TT.
/d/Ddaý ("uncle")Arabic د.
/k/Kkitap ("book")Arabic ك; palatalizes before front vowels.
/g/Ggul ("rose")Arabic گ; Cyrillic Г; back variants approach .
/f/Ffyn ("inform")Arabic ف; loan-influenced.
/v/Vwagt ("time")Arabic و/ف; Cyrillic В.
/s/Ssuw ("water")Arabic س.
/z/Zzat ("nature")Arabic ز.
/ʃ/Şşäher ("city")Arabic ش; Cyrillic Ш.
/ʒ/Žžüýe ("lip")Latin innovation; Cyrillic Ж; Arabic ژ approximation caused mergers.
/tʃ/Ççäýnek ("teapot")Arabic چ; Cyrillic Ч; distinct from /k/.
/dʒ/Jjaň ("new")Arabic ج; Cyrillic Дж.
/m/Mmen ("I")Arabic م.
/n/Nnäme ("what")Arabic ن; distinguished from /ŋ/.
/ŋ/Ňtaň ("dawn")Latin unique; Arabic نگ digraph; Cyrillic Нг; pre-Latin mergers with /n/ proliferated homophones.
/l/Llälä ("tulip")Arabic ل.
/r/Rruh ("soul")Arabic ر; trilled.
This table illustrates the modern Latin system's fidelity to phonemic distinctions, such as separate Ž for /ʒ/ versus Cyrillic's Ж (which occasionally overlapped in usage with /ʃ/ in adaptations), and adaptations for palatalization via positional rather than diacritics. Earlier scripts' mergers, particularly in where multiple sounds shared graphemes like گ for /g/, /ɣ/, and /q/, empirically led to higher rates of written , complicating reading and preservation of oral nuances in pre-reform . The Latin reform thus prioritized causal mapping of sounds to symbols, reducing such ambiguities evident in historical texts.

Letter Names and Pronunciation Guide

The Turkmen Latin alphabet employs 30 letters, with names derived phonetically from the letter's sound often appended with an approximant vowel like /e/ for ease of articulation during alphabet recitation. These names reflect the language's phonetic principles, where each letter maps closely to a distinct , though actual pronunciation incorporates and length distinctions not captured in isolated letter sounds. Standard values are based on the central dialects around , but dialectal variations exist; for instance, the Yomut dialect may devoiced certain stops word-finally more frequently than Teke varieties, affecting perceived letter realizations in . The following table provides the letters, conventional names, and corresponding IPA transcriptions, drawing from established phonetic descriptions of literary Turkmen:
LetterNameIPA
A aa/ɑ/ (or /ɑː/ in lengthened form)
Ä ää/æ/
B bbe/b/
Ç ççe/t͡ʃ/
D dde/d/
E ee/e/ (or /eː/)
F ffe/f/
G gge/ɡ/
H hhe/h/
I ii/i/ (or /iː/)
J jje/d͡ʒ/
K kke/k/
L lle/l/
M mme/m/
N nne/n/
Ñ ñeñ/ŋ/
O oo/o/ (or /oː/)
Ö öö/ø/
P ppe/p/
R rre/r/ (trilled)
S sse/s/
Ş şşe/ʃ/
T tte/t/
U uu/u/ (or /uː/)
Ü üü/y/
W wwe/w/
Ý ýý/j/
Y yy/ɯ/ (or /ɯː/)
Z zze/z/
Ž žže/ʒ/
In practice, isolated letter pronunciations serve as approximations; full phonemic realization depends on contextual factors such as , where back vowels like /a/ and /o/ trigger corresponding softening in some positions across dialects. Inconsistent application of these standards in early post-1991 has empirically hindered uniform pronunciation mastery, with surveys from the showing variable adherence in rural Teke-speaking areas compared to urban centers.

Implementation and Sociolinguistic Impact

Transition Challenges and Political Motivations

The transition to a Latin-based script in Turkmenistan was driven primarily by President Saparmurat Niyazov's decrees, beginning with the April 12, 1993, announcement of Cyrillic reform to a new Latin alphabet, approved by parliament as a deliberate break from Soviet-era Russification. These measures, extended through subsequent state programs in the 1990s, prioritized national sovereignty over organic linguistic evolution, countering the Soviet promotion of Cyrillic as a tool of centralized control that had marginalized pre-existing Turkic scripts and diluted ethnic linguistic identity. While such de-Sovietization efforts fostered long-term cultural autonomy by reducing dependence on Russian orthographic norms, they reflected top-down authoritarianism rather than grassroots demand, as Niyazov's governance relied heavily on unilateral decrees without broad consultative processes. Practical implementation faced significant hurdles, including the need for widespread retraining of educators, officials, and the public—estimated to affect millions in a literacy-dependent society—alongside reprinting of textbooks, signage, and official documents, which imposed substantial economic burdens amid Turkmenistan's resource-constrained post-independence economy. These challenges contributed to repeated delays, with full replacement of Cyrillic originally mandated before 2005 but postponed to the 2010s through phased decrees, highlighting the inefficiencies of state-mandated overhauls without adequate infrastructural preparation. Controversies arose from the coercive enforcement, including penalties for non-compliance in official contexts, which clashed with official narratives of cultural revival, resulting in persistent diglossic practices where Cyrillic lingered in informal and older-generation usage despite policy pressures. Critics, including analyses of Central Asian reforms, argue that the reforms' political framing as anti-imperial revival overlooked causal realities of implementation friction, such as limited technological support for script conversion and resistance from Russian-proficient elites, yet the underlying rejection of Soviet "internationalist" —often critiqued for imposing ideologically uniform scripts—ultimately bolstered Turkmen ethnic cohesion against historical assimilation pressures. This top-down approach, while inefficient in execution, aligned with broader post-Soviet assertions of titular-language primacy, prioritizing causal independence from Moscow's linguistic legacy over immediate practicality.

Current Usage and Residual Cyrillic

The Latin-based alphabet for Turkmen has been the official script in Turkmenistan since a 1993 decree by President Saparmurat Niyazov initiating the reform from Cyrillic, with full implementation for official documents achieved by 2000. However, empirical evidence indicates incomplete adoption, as Cyrillic continues to appear in informal contexts, older publications, and among pre-reform generations, necessitating bilingual proficiency for accessing Soviet-era archives and literature. In education, primary school curricula through grade 4 incorporate handwriting practice in both scripts to facilitate skill transfer, reflecting persistent reliance on Cyrillic familiarity despite Latin primacy. This dual exposure underscores adaptation challenges, with studies documenting slower proficiency gains in the new script during early transition phases, contributing to temporary disruptions in reading and writing consistency. Signage and public materials predominantly employ Latin, yet hybrid instances persist in rural areas and private commerce, where Cyrillic aids intergenerational communication. Among the Turkmen diaspora, particularly in and other former Soviet states, Cyrillic dominates for written Turkmen due to linguistic assimilation and compatibility with host scripts, limiting Latin's penetration outside official homeland channels. These patterns reveal no empirical basis for claims of total eradication, as Cyrillic's entrenchment—rooted in decades of prior —sustains generational divides, with individuals born before 1993 often defaulting to it for fluency, while younger cohorts exhibit partial decoding ability but prefer Latin for modern digital interfaces post-2010s. The slow convergence has empirically strained literacy continuity, as evidenced by system's lagged adaptation, without verifiable data supporting unhindered progress.

Regional Standardization Efforts

Turkmenistan's adoption of a Latin-based script in the early positioned it as an early model for de-Cyrillicization among Turkic-speaking states still reliant on , such as and . As an observer state in the (OTS), Turkmenistan participated in discussions leading to the September 11, 2024, approval of a proposed 34-letter Latin-based common during a commission meeting in , . This initiative, coordinated by the International Turkic Academy, aims to standardize across member states like , , , , and to enhance linguistic unity and cross-border communication. The common alphabet aligns partially with Turkmenistan's 30-letter Latin system, incorporating shared diacritics for Turkic phonemes such as Ä, Ö, Ü, and Ŋ, but introduces no binding obligations for observers like Turkmenistan, preserving national sovereignty in orthographic decisions. Potential advantages include improved readability for ethnic Turkmen communities across borders and facilitation of cultural exchange, yet risks exist of diluting language-specific features, such as the unique letter ƶ representing the /ʒ/ sound, which lacks direct equivalents in the proposed standard. In contrast to Kazakhstan's repeated delays in full Cyrillic-to-Latin transition—despite agreeing to the OTS proposal—Turkmenistan's established Latin usage underscores a domestically driven ethnic revival, prioritizing linguistic independence over supranational harmonization pressures.

Illustrative Examples

Sample Text in Latin Script

Bütün adamlar azatlykda, gelsene-deňlige we adamçylyk hukuklarynda doglanýarlar, olar akyl-hüweýe we umumy adamlaryň bir-birine garşy dogan duýgulara eýedirler we hemmelerin bir-birine dogan doganlar hökmünde hereket etmelidirler. This excerpt from Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) exemplifies the modern Turkmen Latin alphabet adopted in Turkmenistan via decrees in 1993 and refined through 1995–2000 orthographic commissions, featuring 32 letters including digraphs like ň (for /ŋ/), ş (/ʃ/), ç (/tʃ/), and ň distinguishing velar nasals. Vowel harmony manifests in suffixes adapting to root vowels, as in doglanýarlar where front-vowel harmony shifts doglan- to -ýarlar (high front ý /j/ aligning with preceding a in disharmonic contexts but harmonizing overall stem), ensuring phonological consistency across morphemes without altering semantic meaning. Digraphs like ýa in azatlykda represent front-rounded vowels harmonizing with preceding elements, while ew in hüweýe denotes diphthongal sequences typical in Turkic roots, aiding orthographic predictability in compound words. The script's design prioritizes phonetic transparency, reducing ambiguities from prior Cyrillic usage by mapping each grapheme to distinct sounds, as verified in state-approved texts post-2001 standardization.

Comparative Script Samples

The phrase "Garaşsyz Türkmenistan" ("Independent Turkmenistan"), emblematic of the nation's sovereignty declaration since 1991, exemplifies orthographic variations across scripts.
ScriptRepresentation
Arabicگراشسیز تورکمنستان
CyrillicГарашсыз Түркменистан
LatinGaraşsyz Türkmenistan
In the Arabic script, predominant until the 1920s, representation is primarily consonantal, omitting short vowels (e.g., no marks for /a/ in "gara-" or /y/ in "-syz"), which demands contextual inference in Turkmen's vowel harmony system comprising eight vowels divided into front/back pairs. This abjad structure, adapted from Perso-Arabic, historically led to ambiguities for agglutinative Turkic morphology, as short vowels alter meaning via harmony rules. The Cyrillic adaptation, enforced from 1940 to 1993, renders vowels alphabetically (e.g., "а" for /a/, "ы" for /ɯ/) but incorporates Slavic-oriented letters like "ц" (unused in Turkmen) and approximations for Turkic specifics (e.g., "ш" for /ʃ/), introducing a skew toward ill-suited to native velars like /ŋ/ or fricatives like /θ/ in dialects. , reinstated in 1993, explicitly marks all vowels and unique phonemes (e.g., "ş" for /ʃ/, "ň" for /ŋ/, diacritics ä/ö/ü for front rounded/unrounded), aligning closely with Turkmen's 17-vowel inventory (including length distinctions) and harmony constraints, thereby minimizing representational deficits observed in prior systems per analyses of Turkic orthographic efficiency.

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  19. https://countrystudies.us/turkmenistan/13.htm
  20. https://progres.online/regional-news/legacy-of-alphabet-latinization-in-central-asia/
  21. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27756121
  22. https://eki.ee/wgrs/rom2_tk.htm
  23. https://www.reddit.com/r/linguisticshumor/comments/1gjqxol/turkmen_latin_alphabet_was_designed_to_be/
  24. https://iwpr.net/global-voices/turkmen-hit-library-ban
  25. https://astanatimes.com/2024/09/turkic-states-revive-latin-based-alphabet-to-preserve-linguistic-heritage/
  26. https://www.rferl.org/a/common-turkic-alphabet-kyrgyz-kazakh-uzbek-turkmen-latin-cyrillic/33137392.html
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  37. https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2000/00176-turkmen.pdf
  38. https://transliteration.eki.ee/pdf/Turkmen.pdf
  39. https://www.101languages.net/turkmen/alphabet.html
  40. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291523062_Grammatical_sketch_of_Turkmen
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  42. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-royal-asiatic-society/article/alphabet-reform-in-the-six-independent-exsoviet-muslim-republics/5EDE8C7869FB71429351FEA0E1EBA8F1
  43. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/languages-in-a-global-world/ideologies-and-alphabet-reforms-in-central-asia_9789264123557-13-en
  44. https://hrlibrary.umn.edu/iwraw/publications/countries/turkmenistan.htm
  45. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/uploads/4044fa06-d866-42a2-8f20-4cb75dda9155/chronology_20070516.pdf
  46. https://cabar.asia/en/latin-alphabet-for-kazakhstan-turkification-westernisation-or-useless-initiative
  47. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41539-021-00084-w
  48. https://www.quora.com/Does-Turkmenistan-still-use-the-Cyrillic-alphabet-in-some-parts-of-the-country-such-as-store-names-literature-and-institutions-If-not-is-it-still-useful-to-learn-the-Cyrilic-in-Turkmen
  49. https://www.rferl.org/a/turkmenistan-demand-for-russian-language/32834522.html
  50. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/world/turkic-states-reach-agreement-on-common-34-letter-alphabet/3327560
  51. https://www.turkicacademy.org/smi/declaration-common-turkic-alphabet
  52. https://timesca.com/adoption-of-latin-based-common-turkic-alphabet/
  53. https://astanatimes.com/2024/09/turkic-countries-agree-on-single-latin-based-alphabet/
  54. https://nationalanthems.info/tm.htm
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