Current Chuvash Alphabet. Official in Chuvash Republic.
Аа Ăă Бб Вв Гг Дд Ее Ёё Ĕĕ Жж Зз Ии Йй Кк Лл Мм Нн Оо Пп Рр Сс Çç Тт Уу Ÿÿ Фф Хх Цц Чч Шш Щщ ъ Ыы ь Ээ Юю Яя
CVLat. The Phonemic Alphabet. Unofficial. Based on many Chuvash Latin scripts.
This is an unusual simplified alphabet. Letters are grouped into three rows according to the nature of sounds they stand for.
a ă e ĕ y i u ü (vowels)
m v l n r j (sonorant consonants)
p t c ş s š h k (obstructed consonants)
Pronunciation
Vowels
All Chuvash vowels are fully pronounced. However, because there are few vowel phonemes (smallest sound units that contrast meaning), in actual speech the same phoneme could be pronounced differently even by the same speaker. For example, the phoneme /a/ in Chuvash can be pronounced as English a in park, u in cut, but substituting one variant for another doesn't change the meaning.
Harmony. Words and syllables in are grouped into back and front according to their quality. Usually, depending on the vowel of the root word, back or front variants of affixes are attached.
The back vowels: a ă y u.
The front vowels: e ĕ i ü.
e.g.:
back: root păr- 'to wring' affixes -at present tense -ăp first person -ăr plural = păratpăr 'We are wringing...'
front: root pĕr- 'to shirr' affixes -et present tense -ĕp first person -ĕr plural = pĕretpĕr 'We are shirring...'
Although a front vowel, i is an exception, in that it forces front harmony when in the root word, but doesn't follow harmony (e.g. şanni 'the sleeve', tăvin 'let him do'). In certain dialect it doesn't even force harmony (e.g. dialect sira - standard sire).
Short vowels. Or so called reduced neutral vowels - ă, ĕ. Compare English a in sofa and e in taken. In proper articulation ĕ is more to the front and narrower, however in actual speech one may hear no difference between ă and ĕ.
a ă e ĕ y i u ü
[a ə e ɘ ɯ i u y]
a Аа [a] back, full ача/aca 'child', малалла/malalalla 'forward', аталантармалла/atalantarmalla 'must develop'
ă Ăă [ə] back, short – ăнăçлă/ănăşlă 'successful', мăнкăмăллă/mănkămăllă 'arrogant'.
e Ээ, е [e] front, full – этем/etem 'humanbeing', ертекен/jerteken 'leader'.
ĕ Ĕĕ [ɘ] front, short – ĕмĕтсĕрлĕх/ĕmĕtsĕrlĕh 'hopelessness', пĕлĕтлĕ/pĕlĕtlĕ 'cloudy'.
y Ыы [ɯ] or [ɨ] back, full - ырă/yră [ˈɯrə] 'good', пыл/pyl 'honey'. y (ы) is pronounced as a variant [ɨ] (slightly losing its back quality), in back words, accommodating to the front consonant ş or c it follows: çын/şyn [ɕɨn] 'person', çыр/şyr [ɕɨr], чых/cyh [ʨɨx] 'to cram'.
i Ии [i] or [ɨ] front, full - ил/il [ilʲ] 'to take', пит/pit [pʲitʲ] 'face'. i (и) is pronounced as a variant [ɨ] (slightly losing its front quality), in the affix -i, which only has front variant.
u Уу [u] back, full - ут/ut [ut] 'to walk', ту/tu [tu] 'to do', туттурут/tutturut 'fiddle'.
ü Ÿÿ [y] front, full - ÿт/üt [ÿtʲ] 'skin', тÿ/tü 'to slice'.