Chu·vash or Chuwash or Chovash or Chavash or Çuaş is a Turkic language spoken west of the Urals in central Russia. Chuvash is the native language of the Chuvash people and an official language of Chuvashia. It is spoken by about two million people.

The Chuvash alphabet uses the cyrillic script plus extra letters: А, Е with caron (short vowels), У with umlauts (Ü) and Ç for a sound like the German Ich-Laut.

Chuvash language has afficates [dZ] and [tS] (дж(?), ч), pronouncing like in Turkish and sounds without afficates like in Tatar (ж, ç).

Alphabet:

А Ӗ Б В Г Д Е Ё Ӗ Ж З И Й К Л М Н О П Р С Ҫ Т У Ӳ Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я
а ӗ б в г д е ё ӗ ж з и й к л м н о п р с ҫ т у ӳ ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я

There are two dialect in Chuvash: Upper (pronouncing o) and Downer (pronouncing u). Literary language based on Downer dialect. Both Tatar and Finnic languages influenced the Chuvash language.

There are Russian, Mari, Arab and Farsi words in Chuvash language.

The most ancient writing system was Runic, which disappeared before the Mongol invasion . Later Arabic was used. The modern alphabet was created in 1873 by I. Ya. Yakovlev.