Bzyb dialect

Bzyb (also spelled Bzyp) is a major dialect of Abkhaz, native to the Bzyb River region of Caucasus. It was once the literary variety of Abkhaz, but students are now taught in the Abzhuy dialect.

It differs from standard Abkhaz mainly in terms of phonology. It has 69 consonant phonemes. It shares the [ɕʷ] and [ʑʷ] sounds with the Sadz dialect, and the [t͡ɕ], [d͡ʑ], [t͡ɕʼ], [ɕ], [ʑ], [χˤ], and [χˤʷ] sounds are unique to Bzyb. Standard Abkhaz (which is based on the Abzhywa dialect) lacks these sounds.

The phoneme [ɥ] ⟨Ҩ ҩ⟩ was originally a labialized pharyngeal fricative [ʕʷ].

The Bzyb consonant inventory appears to have been the fundamental inventory of Proto-Abkhaz, with the inventories of Abzhywa and Sadz being reduced from this total, rather than the Bzyb series being innovative.

Bzyb was first written in 1862, when Peter von Uslar introduced a Cyrillic-based orthography for it, partially inspired by Anders Johan Sjögren's 1844 Ossetian alphabet. The alphabet is as follows:

а	б	ҩ	г	ӷ	д	ꚁ	е
ж	ђ	ꚅ	ꚅ̆	з	ӡ	ꚃ	һ
ꚕ	і	ј	к	қ	л	м	н
о	п	ԥ	ԛ	р	с	т	ҭ
ꚍ	ꚍ̆	у	ф	х	ц		ꚏ
ꚏ̆			ч		ҽ	ҽ̆	ш
ш̆	ꚗ	ꚗ̆	ѵ

• Abkhaz phonology