Turkmen alphabet

Vowel Harmony

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. It's either ـلِر / ler and ـلار / lar, front and back vowels respectively. 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. The word for dogs will be ایتلِر / itler (ایتلار / itlar is incorrect)
• The word for four is دؤرت / dört, thus the word for all four of us will be دؤردیمیز / dördimiz

And below are examples for back vowels:

• The word for mountain is داغ / dag, thus the word for mountains will be داغلار / daglar

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.

Roundness of vowels

In Turkmen, there's a rule that words do not end in rounded vowels (unlike Azerbaijani Language).

The round vowels o / اوْ and ö / اؤ can only exist in the first syllable. Even if they are heard in pronunciation in other syllables, they should be written as a / ـا or e / ــِـ ە respectively.

The round vowels u / اوُ and ü / اۆ can only exist in the first and second syllable.

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

Vowel Orthography

Of the two forms of the vowels above, some of them happen to have the letter ا in one of their forms, but not the other. These vowels, if at the beginning of the word, will universally be accompanied with ا, but if they happen to be in the middle or end of a word, then the ا will be dropped. The vowel corresponding to the Latin letter u is shown as اوُ / وُ. See examples below for words including this vowel:

• The word for flour is اوُن / un. It is incorrect to spell it as وُن.
• The word for wheat is بوُغدای / bugdaý. It is incorrect to spell it as باوُغدای

In Turkmen, there are two types of syllables, open-ended syllables, which end in a vowel, and close-ended syllables. Open-ended syllables are ones that end in a vowel, i.e. they're in a V or cV form. Close-ended syllables are those that end in a consonant, i.e. they're in a Vc or cVc form. This generally doesn't 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:

• Close-ended syllable: The word dessan ('story') is broken down to two close-ended syllables, des-san. Thus, the diacritic form of the vowel "e" is used: دِسسان. It is worth noting that similar to Persian and Arabic, diacritics are often omitted from writing.
• Open-ended syllable: The word erteki is broken down to three syllables, er-te-ki. Thus, the "e" vowel in the second syllable is written as ە, the word is spelt as ارتەکی.

There is one exception to this rule, and that is the suffix "leri", which indicate that a noun is plural and in an objective or possessive case. Despite the suffix consisting of an open-ended syllable, it is written as ـلری.

The Latin letter a is generally written as آ / ـا. This is universally true for words of Turkmen origin. However, loanwords, since they're mostly from Persian or Arabic, and already have a proper and familiar spelling, can 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.

Notes

Turkmen words cannot end in the letter ب / b. Instead, a letter پ / p is used. However, in Arabic alphabet, and unlike Latin Alphabet, this rule does not extend to loanwords, such as کباب /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. This rule does not apply to single-syllable words. When the letter ب / b is between two vowels, its pronunciation would be in between [b] (b) and [β] (v).

All originally Turkmen words that have the sound t are to be written using ت. The letter ط, while being pronounced identically, is solely used for writing loanwords.

Turkmen words cannot end in the letter ج / j. Instead, a letter چ / ç is used. However, In Arabic Alphabet, unlike Latin Alphabet, this rule does not extend to loanwords. If as part of a suffix, a vowel is added to the end of a word ending in چ / ç, this final letter is then replaced with ج / j. For example, the word دۆرتگۆچ / dürtgüç is transformed to دۆرتگۆجی / dürtgüji. This rule does not apply to single syllable words, such as ساچ / saç, meaning hair.

Turkmen words cannot end in the letter د / d. Instead, a letter ت / t is used. However, In Arabic Alphabet, unlike Latin Alphabet, this rule does not extend to loanwords. If as part of a suffix, a vowel is added to the end of a word ending in ت / t, this final letter is then replaced with د / d. This rule does not apply to single-syllable words.

All originally Turkmen words that have the sound z are to be written using ز. The letters ذ / ض / ظ, while being pronounced identically, are solely used for writing loanwords.

All originally Turkmen words that have the sound S are to be written using س. The letters ث / ص, while being pronounced identically, are solely used for writing loanwords.

The letters ق / غ are exclusive with back vowels, whereas the letter گ is used with front vowels.

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

The Latin letter K is written as ق in presence of back vowels, and it is written as ک in presence of front vowels.

tashdid

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

• 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 it is incorrect to spell the word as 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.