Megrelian or Mingrelian (მარგალური ნინა, Margaluri nina, in Megrelian; მეგრული ენა, Megruli ena, in Georgian) is a language spoken in northwest Georgia. The language was also called Iverian (Georgian Iveriuli ena) in the early 20th century.

Usage

Megrelian is estimated to have about 300,000–500,000 native speakers, mostly in the Samegrelo (Mingrelia) region of Georgia. This region comprises the Odishi Hills and the Kolkheti lowlands, from the Black Sea coast to the Svan Mountains and the Tskhenistskali River. Smaller enclaves exist in the autonomous Georgian republic of Abkhazia. Their geographical distribution is relatively compact, which has helped to promote the transmission of the language between generations. Samegrelo (Mingrelia) is a historic province in the western part of the republic of Georgia, formerly also known as Odishi. ... Colchis (Georgian Kolkheti), or Aea-Colchis, was, in ancient times, a district of Asia Minor, at the eastern extremity of the Black Sea, bounded on the north by the Caucasus. ... Map of the Black Sea. ... Abkhazia (Abkhaz Аҧсны/Aphsny, Georgian აფხაზეთი/Apxazeti, Russian Абха́зия/Abhazia) is a region of 8,600 km² (3,300 sq. ...

Megrelian is generally written with the Georgian alphabet, but has no written standard or official status, and is used mainly for familiar and informal conversation. Megrelian speakers are bilingual and use Georgian (or, to a small extent, Abkhazian) for literary and other purposes. The Georgian alphabet is the script currently used to write the Georgian language and occasionally other languages of the Caucasus. ... Abkhaz is an agglutinative Georgia (in the autonomous republic of Abkhazia) and Turkey. ...

History

Megrelian is one of the South Caucasian languages. It is closely related to Laz, from which it has differentiated mostly in the last 500 years, after the northern (Megrelian) and southern (Laz) communities were separated by Georgian (Kartvelic) and Turkic invasions. Megrelian has been studied by Georgian and foreign linguists since the 19th century. Standard sources include a phonetic analysis by Aleksandre Tsagareli (1880), and grammars by Ioseb Kipshidze (1914) and Shalva Beridze (1920). The South Caucasian languages, also called the Kartvelian languages, are spoken primarily in Georgia, with smaller groups of speakers in Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, Ukraine and other countries. ... The Laz language (Lazuri in Laz, ლაზური (Lazuri) or ჭანური (Chanuri) in Georgian) is spoken by an ethnic group of the same name on the Southeast shore of the Black Sea. ...

The oldest surviving texts in Megrelian date from the 19th century and are mainly ethnographical literature. From 1930 to 1938 several newspapers were published in Megrelian, such as Kazaxishi Gazeti, Komuna, Samargalosh Chai Narazenish Chai, and Samargalosh Tutumi. More recently, there has been some revival of the language, with the publication of dictionaries — Megrelian-Georgian by Otar Kajaia, and Megrelian-German by Otar Kajaia and H. Fänrich — and poetry books by Lasha Gaxaria, Guri Otobaia, Giorgi Sichinava, Jumber Kukava, and Vaxtang Xarchilava.

Dialects

The main dialects and sub-dialects of Megrelian are:

• Zugdidi-Samurzakano or Northwest dialect
  • Dzhvari
• Senaki or Southeast dialect
  • Martvili-Bandza
  • Abasha

References

• Aleksandre Tsagareli (1880), Megrelskie Etiudi, Analiz Fonetiki Megrelskogo Yazika ("Megrelian Studies — The Analysis of Phonetics of Megrelian Language"). In Russian.
• Ioseb Kipshidze (1914), Gramatika Megrelskogo (Iverskogo) Yazika ("Grammar of Megrelian (Iverian) Language"). In Russian.
• Shalva Beridze (1920), Megruli (Iveriuli) Ena ("Megrelian (Iverian) Language"). In Georgian.
• Laurence Broers (2004), Containing the Nation, Building the State - Coping with Nationalism, Minorities, and Conflict in Post-Soviet Georgia.

External links

• Nanashi Nina - The First ABCBook In Megrelian
• TITUS Caucasica: Megrelian
• Otar Kajaia's Megrelian-Georgian dictionary at TITUS.
• Megrelian Project at Lund University, Sweden
• The Kartvelian Languages by Zurab Sarjveladze
• Two sons of one mother’: Georgian, Mingrelian and the challenge of nested primordialisms (chapter 7 of book by L. Broers above).