Foreword
The Cyrillic orthography was based on its Russian counterpart. The latest orthography is based on a Roman script. The following shows the two alphabets, and then the International Phonetic Alphabet symbols used to represent the sounds produced.
| Latin | Cyrillic | IPA | Notes |
| A a | А а | ɑ | As in "catch" (approximately) |
| B b | Б б | b, β | Becomes a fricative (softens) mid word or phrase |
| Ç ç | Ч ч | t͡ʃ | "ch" in English as in chart or chin |
| D d | Д д | d | |
| E e | Э э, Е е | ɛ | As in "egg". See below for Cyrillic E, e |
| Ä ä | Ә ә | aː | As in "air" but with hump of tongue further forward |
| F f | Ф ф | f | |
| G g | Г г | g, ɣ | Fricative mid-utterance. Front or back velar depending on vowels. |
| H h | Х х | x, h | Usually a central fricative as in "loch". Uvular - see "g" |
| I i | И и | i | As in "feet" |
| J j | Җ җ | d͡ʒ | "j" in "joke" |
| Ž ž | Ж ж | ʒ | Used mostly in loan-words e.g. the Arabic sežd. Pronounced as in "vision". |
| K k | К к | kʰ | Front or back velar depending on surrounding vowels. See "p" for k vs. kʰ. |
| L l | Л л | lʲ, lˠ | Palatised with front vowels, velarised with back ones. |
| M m | М м | m | |
| N n | Н н | n | |
| Ň ň | Ң ң | ŋ | "ng" as in "sing" |
| O o | О о | ɔ | As in "off" |
| Ö ö | Ө ө | œ | As in the French oeuf |
| P p | П п | pʰ, p | At the beginning of a word it is "breathy", mid-word not. |
| R r | Р р | ɾ, r | When there are two "r"s the flap becomes a trill e.g. garry |
| S s | С с, Ц ц | θ, s | Main tribes, Türkmenabat versions respectively |
| Ş ş | Ш ш | ʃ | "sh" (assimilates to front and back vowels) |
| T t | Т т | tʰ, t | |
| U u | У у | u | As in "rule" |
| Ü ü | Ү ү | y | As in German "über" |
| W w | В в | w | |
| Y y | Ы ы | ɯ | Further back than the Russian 61, but closer (tongue to palate) |
| Ý ý | Й й | j | The first sound in "yacht" |
| Z z | З з | ð, d | Main tribes, Türkmenabat versions respectively |
| (Ýe, ýe) | Е е | je, ɛ | Can also be [E, e] in Latin – when not word initial or following ъ. Part of |
| (Ýo, ýo) | Ё ё | jɔ | Cyrillic but not Latin alphabet, these characters are |
| (Ýu, ýu) | Ю ю | ju | mostly represented by two letters in the Latin alphabet, and are |
| (Ýa, ýa) | Я я | jɑ | pronounced differently from the same characters in Russian. |
| (Ş ş) | Щ щ | ʃː | Pronounced (in Russian) like a long, soft ш. Hardly ever [ʃtʃ] any more. |
| - | ь | ʲ | Soft sign (palatalises previous consonant) e.g. -тъ is pronounced [tʲ] |
| - | ъ | Hard sign (treat next vowel separately) e.g. весъет [wesjet] |
See: edebi-dil.com 'A Grammar of the Turkmen Language' for a pdf version of this chart, including IPA equivalents.
Vowel Harmony chart:
| Position | Front | Back | |||
| Rounding | UR | R | UR | R | UR = Unrounded, R = Rounded |
| Close | i, i: | ü, ü: | y, (y:) | u, (u:) | |
| Open-mid or Open | e, ä: | ö, (ö:) | a, (a:) | o, (o:) |
