[2] The Abkhaz word for alphabet is анбан (anban), which was borrowed from Georgian ანბანი (anbani).
[3][4] In 1909, the alphabet was again expanded to 55 letters by Andria Tchotchua to adjust to the extensive consonantal inventory of Abkhaz.
In 1996, the most recent reform of the alphabet was implemented: while labialization had hitherto been marked with two additional letters, ә and у (у was used in the digraphs гу, ҕу, ку, қу, ҟу, and ху, which were not considered separate letters), since then only ә was retained in this function.
The modern Abkhaz orthography gives preference to the letters Г К П Т Х Ч with descender (Ӷ Қ Ԥ Ҭ Ҳ Ҷ).
[6] Besides the digraphs listed in the alphabet, the letter ь occurs in ль /lʲ/, which is used in some loanwords.