Georgian (also Kartvelian; Kartuli in Georgian) is the official language of Georgia, a republic in the Caucasus. For the origin of the name, see the Georgia article.

Georgian is the primary language of 4,150,000 people in Georgia itself (90% of the population), and of another 2.5 million people abroad (chiefly in Turkey,Russia,USA and Europe with smaller communities in Iran and Azerbaijan). It is also the literary language for most ethnographic groups of Georgian people, especially those who speak other South Caucasian languages (Svans, Megrelians, and the Laz).

The language

Linguistic classification

Georgian is the most important of the South Caucasian languages, a family that also includes Svan and Megrelian (chiefly spoken in Northwest Georgia) and Laz (chiefly spoken along the Black Sea coast of Turkey, from Melyat, Rize to the Georgian frontier).

Dialects

Dialects of Georgian include Imeretian, Racha-Lechkhum, Gurian, Ajarian, Imerkhev (in Turkey), Kartlian, Kakhetian, Ingilo, Tush, Khevsur, Mokhev, Pshav, Mtiul, Ferjeidan (in Iran), Meskhetian.

History of the language

Georgian is believed to have separated from Megrelian and Laz in the third millennium BC. Based on the degree of change, linguists (e.g. G.Klimov, T.Gamq'relidze, G.Machavariani) conjecture that the earliest split occurred in the second millennium BC or earlier, separating Svan from the other languages. Megrelian and Laz separated from Georgian roughly a thousand years later.

Georgian has a very rich literary tradition. The oldest surviving literary text in Georgian is the "Martyrdom of Saint Shushaniki, the Queen" (C'amebaj c'midisa Shushanik'isi, dedoplisa) by Iakob Tsurtaveli, from the 5th century AD.

Linguistic features

The language contains some formidable consonant clusters, as may be seen in words like gvprtskvni ("You peel us") and mtsvrtneli ("trainer"). Most Georgian surnames end in -dze ("son") (Western Georgia), -shvili ("child") (Eastern Georgia), -ia (Western Georgia, Mingrelia), -ani (Western Georgia, Svanetia), -uri (Eastern Georgia), -ba or -badze (Western Georgia, Abkhazia) etc.

Georgian has a subject-verb-object primary sentence structure, and an ergative-like noun inflection (case) system. Georgian has no grammatical gender; even pronouns are gender-neutral.

Alphabet

(see Georgian alphabet)

Phonology

Consonants

¹ /qʼ/ has neither non-ejective nor voiced counterparts
² [lˠ] is a velarized [l]

There are many consonant clusters in Georgian, while almost every word ends with a vowel.

Vowels

See also: Georgian in Iran

External links and references

• Georgian Website / Portal with info on Georgian culture and language (http://www.kartuli.com)
• Table copied from pgdudda's website.
• online Georgian Grammar (http://www.armazi.com/georgian/).
• Online Games in Georgian Language (http://www.flyordie.com/games-ge.html)
• Pavle Ingoroq'va. Georgian inscriptions of antique.- Bulletin of ENIMK, vol. X, Tbilisi, 1941, pp. 411-427 (in Georgian)
• Zaza Aleksidze. Epistoleta Tsigni, Tbilisi, 1968, 150 pp (in Georgian)
• Korneli Danelia, Zurab Sarjveladze. Questions of Georgian Paleography, Tbilisi, 1997, 150 pp (in Georgian, English summary)
• Elene Machavariani. The graphical basis of the Georgian Alphabet, Tbilisi, 1982, 107 pp (in Georgian, French summary)
• Ivane Javakhishvili. Georgian Paleography, Tbilisi, 1949, 500 pp (in Georgian)
• Ramaz Pataridze. The Georgian Asomtavruli, Tbilisi, 1980, 600 pp (in Georgian)
• "Great discovery" (about the expedition of Academician Levan Chilashvili).- Newspaper "Kviris Palitra", Tbilisi, April 21-27, 2003 (in Georgian)