Cyrillic-Kiswahili (Кисирили-Кису'ахили)

Cyrillic-Kiswahili is a way to write Swahili with the Cyrillic script devised by Myles Webley. He was surprised to realise that despite Soviet support of African liberation movements, no attempts were made to adapt the Cyrillic script for African languages, and he decided to to give it a shot.

Notable features

Type of writing system: alphabet
Direction of writing: left to right in horizontal lines
Used to write: Swahili (Kiswahili)

Cyrillic-Kiswahili alphabet

Download an alphabet chart for Cyrillic-Kiswahili (Excel)

Notes

Cyrillic Kiswahili uses the letters Ғ ғ, Ҙ ҙ, and Ҫ ҫ to represent the Kiswahili consonants /ɣ/, /ð/, and /θ/ respectively.
The consonant /ɲ/ is represented as the digraph нј — which constitutes a letter with its own place in the alphabet.
Cyrillic Kiswahili used apostrophes with certain letters to represent different sounds. [The letters У' у' and Х' х' represent /w/ and /kh/ respectively.]
The Cyrillic letter Ц ц is highlighted in red to show it’s only used for loanwords. [e.g., Боцу'aнa - Botswana, Цaр - Tsar, Цyнaми - Tsunami, Мъцу'aнa/У'aцу'aнa - Mtswana/Watswana (Tswana person/people), Кицу'aнa - Kitswana, etc.]
The hard sign (ъ) isn’t part of the alphabet and is only used to indicate syllabic nasals. [e.g., Нъчи - Nchi, Нъзи - Nzi, Мъбу'а - Mbwa]
Prenasalized consonants, however, are written as they would be in Kiswahili’s romanized counterpart. [e.g., Ндеге - Ndege, Нзури - Nzuri, Мџи - Mji, etc.]

Sample text

У'ату у'оте у'амезалиу'а хуру, хаҙи, на хаки зао ни сау'а. У'оте у'амеџалиу'а акили на ҙамири, хивјо јапаса у'атендеане киндугу.

Transliteration

Watu wote wamezaliwa huru, hadhi na haki zao ni sawa. Wote wamejaliwa akili na dhamiri, hivyo yapasa watendeane kindugu.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Details of the Cyrillic alphabet

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