Appendix:Bodzvokhan orthography
The Bodzvokhan language is written with the Vukht script, an abjad, as well as with the Cyrillic alphabet, from which Vukht borrowed several letters.
Vowels
Most of Bodzvokhan's vowels are written with their own letters:
| Vukht | Romanization | Cyrillization | IPA | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | a, ǝ | а, ы | a, ǝ, ɨ | Only appears word-finally, rarely used. Stands for both a and ǝ, the correct pronunciation is deduced from vowel harmony and context. ǝ is sometimes pronounced [ɨ] in Russian loanwords by bilingual speakers. |
| e | e | э | ɛ | Not distinguished from y in Vukht. |
| i | i | и | i | Not distinguished from ay in Vukht. |
| o | o | о | ɔ | Not distinguished from aw in Vukht. |
| ö | ö, yo | ё | œ, jɔ | Borrowed from Cyrillic. |
| u | u | у | u | Not distinguished from w in Vukht. |
| ü | ü, yu | ю | y | Borrowed from Cyrillic. |
| ya | ya | я | ja, æ | Borrowed from Cyrillic. Stands for [æ] in English loanwords. |
| ye | ye | е | jɛ | Borrowed from Cyrillic. |
However, in Vukht, preconsonantal a is marked by a diacritic under the following consonant instead, so ab is ab, ach is ach, ad is ad, etc.
Aside from the rarely-used final form it shares with a, ǝ is unwritten in Vukht. However, Vukht uses ligatures to write some geminate consonants, but not when an unwritten ǝ separates 2 identical consonants, so for instance, hh is spelt hh but hǝh is spelt hǝh. Furthermore, r is spelt ä only if it directly follows a stop, so if an unwritten ǝ separates a stop from r, ä is not used and r is instead spelt with gh, gq or r depending on its etymology, for instance pr is spelt pr but pǝr is spelt pgh, pgq or pǝr. The former sequence /ɢʁ/ is spelt gqr but is now pronounced /ʁː/ and romanized rr.
Consonants
| Vukht | Romanization | Cyrillization | IPA | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b | b | б | b | |
| ch | ch (cch when geminate) | ч | tʃ | Borrowed from Cyrillic. |
| d | d | д | d | |
| dd | dd | дд | dː | |
| dz | dz | ѕ | dz | |
| f | f | ф | f | |
| ff | ff | фф | fː | |
| g | g | г | g | |
| h | h | ҳ | ħ | |
| hh | hh | ҳҳ | ħː | |
| j | j | җ | dʒ | Borrowed from Cyrillic. |
| k | k | к | k | |
| kk | kk | кк | kː | |
| kh | kh | х | x | |
| kkh | kkh | хх | xː | |
| l | l | л | l | |
| ll | ll | лл | lː | |
| m | m | м | m | |
| mm | mm | мм | mː | |
| n | n | н | n | |
| nn | nn | нн | nː | Irregular geminate ligature. |
| ng | ng | ң | ŋ | |
| nng | nng | ңң | ŋː | |
| ñ | ny (nny when geminate) | њ | ɲ | Borrowed from Cyrillic. |
| p | p | п | p | |
| pp | pp | пп | pː | |
| q | q | қ | q | |
| gh | r | ғ | ʁ | Used to stand for */ɣ/, merged with */ʁ/. |
| gq | r | ӷ | ʁ | Used to stand for */ɢ/, merged with */ʁ/. |
| r | r | р | ʁ | |
| rr | rr | рр | ʁː | |
| ä | r | ъ | ˣ | Borrowed from Cyrillic. Only appears after stops as an allophone of /ʁ/. |
| s | s | с | s | |
| ss | ss | сс | sː | Irregular geminate ligature. |
| sh | sh (ssh when geminate) | ш | ʃ | Borrowed from Cyrillic. |
| t | t | т | t | |
| tt | tt | тт | tː | |
| ts | ts | ц | ts | |
| v | v | в | v | |
| w | w | ў | w | Found in loanwords. Not distinguished from u in Vukht. |
| y | y | й, ь | j | Found in loanwords. Not distinguished from i in Vukht. ь is distinguished from й in Cyrillic only and is rarely used. |
| z | z | з | z | |
| zz | zz | зз | zː | |
| zh | zh (zzh when geminate) | ж | ʒ | Borrowed from Cyrillic. |
Numerals
| Vukht | Latin/Cyrillic |
|---|---|
| 0 | 0 |
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 |
| 3 | 3 |
| 4 | 4 |
| 5 | 5 |
| 6 | 6 |
| 7 | 7 |
| 8 | 8 |
| 9 | 9 |
Punctuation
Only the punctuation marks differing noticeably from their Latin and Cyrillic equivalents are listed below:
| Vukht | Latin/Cyrillic |
|---|---|
| ? | ? |
| $ | $ |