Alphabets of Former Times
Like many languages of the former Soviet Union, Avar went through several alphabet changes:
-The first written records are bilingual Georgian-Avar stone inscriptions from the 14th century in the old Georgian Nuskha-Khutsuri script:
-Later on, efforts were made to adapt the Arabic alphabet to Avar:
but only in the 17th Century did it develop into a cohesive system, known as Ajam (ГIажам, from عجم , a term used by Arabs to refer to Persians and other non-Arab, Muslim peoples):
(from the left - Аварский Avar, Даргинский Dargi, Лакский Lak, Лезгинский Lezgi)
Sadly, many documents written in this script were destroyed, though some examples still survive to this day. The script is also said to be known by some older Avars.
In 1928 a Latin alphabet was devised for Avar:
In 1938, however, it was decided that all the languages that had been made to switch to Latin would have to change their alphabets again, this time to Cyrillic. Avar, too, was switched over to a Cyrillic-based alphabet, which it continues to use (with minor modifications) to this day.
Outside Dagestan, where the Cyrillic alphabet is not in common use, Avar is almost exclusively a spoken language, and literary Avar (which differs considerably from some dialects, especially southern ones) is practically unknown.
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