Reference · 31 base letters
Alphabet guide
Burushaski uses a Latin-based academic orthography with diacritics for retroflex, palatal and uvular sounds. The ASCII script maps them to plain-keyboard spellings.
Academic script
Diacritics mark retroflex sounds (ṭ ḍ ṇ ṛ ṣ c̣ j̣ ẓ ỵ), palatals (ć ś), the uvular ġ, the velar nasal ṅ, and stress (á é í ó ú). This is the Berger orthography used in published linguistic work.
ASCII script
Plain keyboards: retroflexes collapse to the base letter (ṭ→t, ṣ→sh), the signature digraphs are cx (ćh), zh (ẓ), gh (ġ), ng (ṅ), aspirates keep their h (ph, th, kh, qh), and stress accents drop.
Base letters
a
aaġo
pain
b
basí
garden
c
cum
from / out of
ch
chil
water
d
dáko
pillar
e
eilem
sawdust
f
famól
fruit
g
garí
light
h
halánc
moon
i
irán
milk cream
j
jarpá
poplar tree
k
kadákus
latch
kh
khóle
here
l
laqpís
handkerchief
m
maltáṣ
butter
n
naġéći
bamboo
o
óśin
guest
p
pácxhi
cloth
ph
phaltás
to break
q
qurút
dry curd
qh
qhurónc̣
deaf
r
raćhélo
guard
s
sar
thread
t
tilí
walnut
th
thám
king
u
urk
wolf
v
váriś
lid
w
wat
skin
x
xakún
donkey
y
ya
bear / snow leopard
z
zurú
cloves
Special characters & diacritics
Glyph
ASCII
Description
Example
Audio
á
a
stressed a (acute marks stress)
abáado· lazy
ć
ch
palatal affricate (English ch)
áćo· brother
ćh
cx
palatal aspirated affricate (no verified example word yet — water is dental chil)
c̣
c
retroflex affricate
rac̣· weed
c̣h
cx
retroflex aspirated affricate
c̣hap· meat
ḍ
d
retroflex d
aḍá· station
é
e
stressed e
étas· to cover
ġ
gh
voiced uvular fricative
ġénis· gold
í
i
stressed i
apí· is not
j̣
j
voiced retroflex affricate
ṅ
ng
velar nasal
méṅġal· snow leopard
ṇ
n
retroflex n
duwáṇ· hitting
ó
o
stressed o
óomanas· to disobey
ṛ
r
retroflex r/flap
khiṛkí· window
ś
sh
palatal sh
śua· good
ṣ
sh
retroflex sh (same ASCII as ś)
ṣapík· bread
ṭ
t
retroflex t
akhilaṭé· thus
ṭh
th
aspirated retroflex t
ṭhap· hit
ú
u
stressed u
dúphaltas· to break in
ỵ
y
retroflex approximant (rare, disappearing)
áỵa· father
ẓ
zh
voiced retroflex sibilant
aẓía· Asia
ʼ
'
glottal stop
yaʼ· oh!