Svan phonology

Vowels

 * 1) Freely varies between  and

Apart from the odd, only Upper Bal and Lashkh dialects have long vowels. Only Upper Bal has ; Lashkh does not have the front rounded vowels.

Alphabet
The alphabet, illustrated above, is similar to the Mingrelian alphabet, with a few additional letters otherwise obsolete in the Georgian script:
 * ჶ
 * ჴ
 * ჸ
 * ჲ
 * ჳ
 * ჷ
 * ჱ

These are supplemented by diacritics on the vowels (the umlaut for front vowels and macron for length), though those are not normally written. The digraphs are used in the Lower Bal and Lentekh dialects, and occasionally in Upper Bal; these sounds do not occur in Lashkh dialect.
 * ჳი
 * ჳე