Tsakhur orthography facts for kids
The Tsakhur language is a special language spoken by the Tsakhur people, mainly in parts of Dagestan (a region in Russia) and Azerbaijan. Like many languages, Tsakhur has its own way of writing, called its orthography. This means it has a specific alphabet and rules for how words are spelled. The Tsakhur language is part of the Turkic languages family, which includes languages like Turkish and Azerbaijani. Interestingly, some parts of Tsakhur show features of a creole language, meaning it might have mixed with other languages over time.
The Tsakhur Alphabet
The Tsakhur alphabet is based on the Cyrillic alphabet, which is also used for the Russian language. This means many of its letters look similar to those you might see in Russian. However, to make all the unique sounds of Tsakhur, the alphabet has added many extra letters.
The main letters in the Tsakhur alphabet are: А, Б, В, Г, Д, Е, Ё, Ж, З, И, Й, К, Л, М, Н, О, П, Р, С, Т, У, Ф, Х, Ц, Ч, Ш, Щ, Ъ, Ы, Ь, Э, Ю, Я.
Besides these, there are 18 special letters that help represent sounds not found in Russian. These include combinations like АІ, ГІ, Гъ, Гь, ЕІ, КІ, Къ, Кь, Л', ОІ, ПІ, ТІ, УІ, Хъ, Хь, ЦІ, ЧІ, and ЫІ. Some of these letters use a special mark called a palochka (which looks like a vertical line, І) or other symbols to change their sound. Different ways of speaking Tsakhur, called dialects, might use slightly different letters. For example, in the Gelmets dialect, the letter ХІ is also used.
How Tsakhur Sounds Work
Phonology is the study of how sounds are organized and used in a language. In Tsakhur, like in many languages, the way words are pronounced can sometimes change depending on the dialect. For example, a word like "Гэмил" in one dialect might be pronounced "Гэмээл" in another. In the Gelmets dialect, the word "Гамил" means "Yellow."
Some Tsakhur sounds are called pharyngealized, which means they are made by tightening the muscles in the back of your throat. These sounds often use the palochka (І) in their written form.
Tsakhur in the Digital World
Sometimes, it can be tricky to use less common languages like Tsakhur on computers and phones. Unicode is a system that makes sure all the different letters and symbols from languages around the world can be shown correctly on digital devices. For Tsakhur, this means making sure all its unique letters are available.
In the past, there have been discussions about how easy it is to type in Tsakhur on social media platforms. Making sure the Tsakhur language is available digitally helps people use their language online and keep it alive.
