Symbols
70Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
Turkmen alphabet: A to M
Ç, Ä and Ž are letters of their own in their own places: Ç after B, Ä after E, Ž after J. There is no C, and I has its dot in both cases.
Turkmen alphabet: N to Z
Ň follows N, Ö, Ş and Ü follow O, S and U, and Ý (the consonant y) follows Y (a vowel). There is no Q, V or X.
Turkmen quotation marks
Currency
Unicode's manat sign was made for Azerbaijan's manat; in Turkmenistan prices are often written with the word manat or TMT.
Where Turkmen is spoken
Largest number of speakers first. This Latin alphabet is used in Turkmenistan; in Iran and Afghanistan Turkmen is usually written in the Arabic script.
On the map
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The 30 letters of the Turkmen alphabet
The Turkmen alphabet used in Turkmenistan today runs A B Ç D E Ä F G H I J Ž K L M N Ň O Ö P R S Ş T U Ü W Y Ý Z. It has 30 letters and leaves out C, Q, V and X. Ç, Ä, Ž, Ň, Ö, Ş, Ü and Ý are letters of their own with their own places in the dictionary: Ä comes right after E, not after A; Ž comes after J; Ň after N; and Ý after Y.
Most letters represent a single sound, but vowel length is not written, so identical spellings can have different pronunciations and meanings. There is one i (I i, with a dot only on the lowercase), unlike Turkish and Azerbaijani with their dotted and dotless pairs: the vowel those languages write with ı, Turkmen writes with Y y.
Turkmen has nine vowels, a o u y (back) and e ä i ö ü (front), and suffixes follow vowel harmony: kitaplar (books) but öýler (houses), Aşgabatda (in Ashgabat) but öýde (at home). Vowels can also be short or long, but the spelling does not mark length, so at is both "horse" (short a) and "name" (long a); readers tell them apart from context.
What Ä, Ň, Ý, Ž and the other special letters sound like
Ä ä is an open front vowel close to the a of English "cat", as in gämi (ship) and nähili (how). Ň ň is the ng of "sing": meniň (my), Hoş geldiňiz (welcome), taňry (god). It never starts a word, but it shows up constantly in endings.
Y y is a vowel, said like i but with the lips spread and the tongue pulled back, as in gyz (girl) and ýyl (year). The consonant y of English "yes" is written Ý ý: ýok (no), ýaş (young), Täze ýyl (New Year). Mixing them up changes the word, so keep the acute on Ý.
J j is the j of "jam" (jan, soul, dear), while Ž ž is the s of "measure", found mainly in loanwords such as žurnal (magazine). Ç ç is the ch of "church" (çaý, tea), Ş ş the sh of "ship" (Aşgabat), and W w a sound between English v and w (suw, water). Ö ö and Ü ü are the rounded front vowels of German: göz (eye), gün (day, sun). A feature you hear rather than see: in standard Turkmen, S and Z are usually said like the th of "thin" and "this".
Turkmen vs Turkish: the same sounds, different letters
Turkmen and Turkish are both Oghuz Turkic languages and share a lot of vocabulary, but their Latin alphabets made different choices for the same sounds. Turkmen y is Turkish ı; Turkmen ý is Turkish y; Turkmen j (the j of jam) is Turkish c; Turkmen ž is Turkish j; and Turkmen w is mostly Turkish v. Turkmen has Ä and Ň, which Turkish does not, and Turkish has Ğ and dotless ı, which Turkmen does not.
So Turkish yıl (year) is Turkmen ýyl, and Turkish çay (tea) is Turkmen çaý. If you write both languages, see the Turkish alphabet page for İ ı and Ğ ğ, and the Azerbaijani page for Ə; the Uzbek and Kazakh pages cover the other big Central Asian Turkic languages.
How to type Turkmen letters on Windows, Mac and phones
The simplest way is a Turkmen keyboard layout: Windows includes one (add Turkmen under Language settings), and Gboard on Android supports Turkmen. To paste a letter right now, click it in the grid above.
Without that layout, Windows Alt codes on the number pad cover the letters shared with Western European languages: Ä Alt0196, ä Alt0228, Ç Alt0199, ç Alt0231, Ö Alt0214, ö Alt0246, Ü Alt0220, ü Alt0252, Ý Alt0221, ý Alt0253, Ž Alt0142 and ž Alt0158. For the rest, Microsoft Word turns a code into the letter when you press AltX right after it: 0147 for Ň, 0148 for ň, 015E for Ş and 015F for ş.
On a Mac with the US layout, OptionU followed by a, o or u gives ä, ö or ü, OptionC gives ç, and OptionE followed by y gives ý. Switch to the ABC Extended layout for the rest: OptionV followed by n or z gives ň or ž. In HTML, Ň ň are Ň ň, Ž ž Ž ž, Ş ş Ş ş and Ý ý Ý ý.
Watch the look-alikes: Turkmen ň has a caron (háček), not the tilde of Spanish ñ; Ş takes a cedilla, not the comma below of Romanian ș; and Ý is a Y with an acute accent, not Ỳ with a grave.
From Arabic script to Cyrillic to Latin
Turkmen was written in the Arabic script until the late 1920s, when the Soviet Union introduced a Latin alphabet; in 1940 that was replaced by a Cyrillic alphabet with its own letters Җ, Ң, Ө, Ү and Ә. After independence Turkmenistan adopted a new Latin alphabet in 1993 and moved schools, signs and the press over to it during the following years.
The 1993 version used unusual forms for four letters: Ñ/ñ for Ň, / for Ş, /ſ for Ž and /ÿ for Ý. These forms had been replaced by the letters used today by 1999. Older Turkmen speakers and the Turkmen communities outside Turkmenistan may still read Cyrillic, and Turkmen in Iran and Afghanistan is usually written in the Arabic script.
Where Turkmen is spoken
By CLDR estimates about 7 million people speak Turkmen. Around 4 million of them live in Turkmenistan , where it is the state language; about 2.5 million live in Iran , mostly in Golestan and North Khorasan provinces; and about 700,000 in Afghanistan , along the northern border. The Latin alphabet on this page is the one used in Turkmenistan.
Turkmenistan's currency is the manat; Unicode has a manat sign , made for Azerbaijan's manat of the same name, though in Turkmenistan prices are often written with the word manat or the code TMT. Iran uses the rial and Afghanistan the afghani . For the country's flag, food and national emoji, see the Turkmenistan collection; the Iran and Afghanistan collections cover the other two countries.
How to use them
5 situationsClick to copyTurkmen Alphabet & Letters combos
12Worth knowing
- The first Latin alphabet of 1993 used Ñ/ñ for Ň, / for Ş, /ſ for Ž and /ÿ for Ý; a name like Şatlyk began with a dollar sign, and these forms were replaced by 1999.
- Turkmen writes the vowel of Turkish ı with the letter Y, and the consonant y with Ý, while Ý is a vowel in Czech, Icelandic and Faroese.
- Ň never begins a Turkmen word, yet it turns up constantly inside words, because the endings for "your" and "of" (-ňyz, -ň, -yň) are full of it.
- Turkmen keeps long vowels that most Turkic languages lost, but the alphabet does not mark them: at with a short a is a horse, with a long a a name.
Questions people ask
7How many letters are in the Turkmen alphabet?
30: A B Ç D E Ä F G H I J Ž K L M N Ň O Ö P R S Ş T U Ü W Y Ý Z. It has no C, Q, V or X, and nine of the letters are vowels.
How to type ň on a keyboard?
Add the Turkmen keyboard (Windows has one, and Gboard on Android does too) and ň has its own key. Otherwise copy it from this page, or in Word type 0148 (small) or 0147 (capital) and press AltX. On a Mac with ABC Extended, press OptionV, then n.
Is Turkmen the same as Turkish?
No. They are related Oghuz Turkic languages with much shared vocabulary, so speakers often follow each other in part, but grammar, sounds and spelling differ. In writing, Turkmen y, ý, j, ž are Turkish ı, y, c, j, and Turkmen has Ä and Ň, which Turkish does not.
Is the Turkmen alphabet Latin or Cyrillic?
In Turkmenistan it is Latin, adopted in 1993. Cyrillic was used from 1940 until then, and Turkmen in Iran and Afghanistan is usually written in the Arabic script.
What is the difference between Y and Ý in Turkmen?
Y y is a vowel, like i said with the tongue pulled back (Turkish ı). Ý ý is the consonant y of English "yes". Both appear in ýyl (year).
What did the 1993 Turkmen alphabet look like?
The 1993 alphabet used Ñ/ñ for Ň, / for Ş, /ſ for Ž and /ÿ for Ý. These forms were replaced by the letters in the grid above by 1999.
What is the currency symbol of Turkmenistan?
The currency is the manat. Prices are often written with the word manat or the code TMT; the Unicode manat sign was made for Azerbaijan's manat but names the same word. Copy it from the grid above.
