The Svan language (ლუშნუ ნინ/შკა̈ნ lušnu nin/šḳän in Svan; სვანური ენა, svanuri ena in Georgian) is a language spoken in Northwest Georgia. Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Capital Sokhumi Official languages Abkhaz, Georgian Government  -  Chairman, Cabinet of Ministers  -  Chairman, Supreme Council Temur Mzhavia Autonomous republic of Georgia  -  Georgian independence Declared Recognised 9 April 1991 25 December 1991  Currency Georgian lari (GEL) Anthem Aiaaira Capital Sukhumi Official languages Abkhaz, Russian1 Government  -  President Sergei Bagapsh  -  Prime Minister Alexander Ankvab... Current distribution of Human Language Families A language family is a group of related languages said to have descended from a common proto-language. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Writing systems of the world today. ... The fifth century example of the Asomtavruli script from Bolnisi Sioni Church The Georgian alphabet is the script currently used to write the Georgian language and other Kartvelian languages (such as Mingrelian), and occasionally other languages of the Caucasus (such as Ossetic in the 1940s). ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is an international standard for language codes. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Unicode is an industry standard allowing computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in any of the worlds writing systems. ...

Distribution

Svan is the native language of about 30,000 Svans^{[citation needed]}, an ethnic subdivision of the Georgian people, living in the mountains of Svaneti, i.e. in the districts of Mestia and Lentekhi of Georgia, along the Enguri, Tskhenistskali and Kodori rivers. Some Svan speakers live in the autonomous republic of Abkhazia; although conditions there make it difficult to reliably estimate their numbers, they are thought to number only around 2,500 individuals. The Georgians (ქართველი ერი (Kartveli Eri) or ქართველები (Kartvelebi) in the Georgian language) are a nation or an ethnic group, originating in the Caucasus. ... Svaneti (სვანეთი. Also known as Svanetia or Svania in Russian and Western languages) is a historic province in Georgia, in the northwestern part of the country. ... The town of Mestia. ... Lentekhi is a small town and Lentekhi District’s (Raion) capital in Georgia’s western region of Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti, 323 km northwest to the nation’s capital Tbilisi. ... The Inguri River Gorge in Svaneti The Inguri (, Ingur; Georgian: , Enguri; Russian: Ингури, Inguri) is a river in western Georgia. ... The Kodori (, Kwydry; Georgian: , Kodori) is the second largest river of Abkhazia, de jure an autonomous republic of Georgia. ... Capital Sokhumi Official languages Abkhaz, Georgian Government  -  Chairman, Cabinet of Ministers  -  Chairman, Supreme Council Temur Mzhavia Autonomous republic of Georgia  -  Georgian independence Declared Recognised 9 April 1991 25 December 1991  Currency Georgian lari (GEL) Anthem Aiaaira Capital Sukhumi Official languages Abkhaz, Russian1 Government  -  President Sergei Bagapsh  -  Prime Minister Alexander Ankvab...

The language is used in familiar and casual social communication. It has no written standard or official status; most speakers also speak Georgian, the country's official language, and use it as their literary and business language. There is no official instruction in Svan, and the number of speakers is declining due to the dispersal of the Svan population in the face of increasing economic hardship. The language is regarded as being endangered, as proficiency in it is limited among young people.

History

Svan is the most differentiated member of the four South Caucasian (Kartvelian) languages, and is not intelligible with the other three (Georgian, Laz, and Megrelian). Svan is believed to have separated from them in the 2nd millennium BC or earlier, about one thousand years before Georgian branched off from the other two. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Laz language (lazuri, ლაზური or lazuri nena, ლაზური ნენა in Laz; ლაზური, lazuri, or ჭანური, chanuri, in Georgian) is spoken by the Laz people on the Southeast shore of the Black Sea. ... Megrelian or Mingrelian (მარგალური ნინა, Margaluri nina, in Megrelian; მეგრული ენა, Megruli ena, in Georgian) is a language spoken in northwest Georgia. ... The 2nd millennium BC marks the transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age. ...

Phonology

Consonants

1. This character, not supported by Unicode, is a reversed "ყ"

In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. ... Dentals are consonants such as t, d, n, and l articulated with either the lower or the upper teeth, or both, rather than with the gum ridge as in English. ... Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. ... Glottal consonants are consonants articulated with the glottis. ... A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... Fricatives (or spirants) are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. ... Affricate consonants begin as stops (most often an alveolar, such as or ) but release as a fricative (such as or or, in a couple of languages, into a fricative trill) rather than directly into the following vowel. ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ... Liquid consonants, or liquids, are approximant consonants that are not classified as semivowels (glides) because they do not correspond phonetically to specific vowels (in the way that, for example, the initial in English yes corresponds to ). The class of liquids can be divided into lateral liquids and rhotics. ...

Vowels

Bold lettes are standard in all dialects. Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. ... A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... The open-mid vowels make a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages. ... An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages. ...

1. Freely varies between [ə] and [ɨ]
2. Diacritics not normally written

Features

Familial features

Like all languages of the South Caucasian family, Svan has a large number of consonants. It has agreement between subject and object, and a split-ergative morphosyntactic system. Verbs are marked for aspect, evidentiality and "version". An ergative-absolutive language (or simply ergative) is one that treats the agent of transitive verbs distinctly from the subject of intransitive verbs and the object of transitive verbs. ...

Distinguishing features

Svan retains the consonant /qʰ/ (voiceless aspirated stop), and the glides /w/ and /j/. It has a larger repertoire of vowels than Georgian; the Upper Bal dialect of Svan has the most vowels of any South Caucasian language, showing both long and short versions of /a ɛ i ɔ u æ ø y/ plus /ə eː/, a total of 18 vowels (Georgian, by contrast, has just five).

Its morphology is less regular than that of the other three sister languages, and there are notable differences in verbal inflections.

Dialects

The Svan language is divided into the following dialects and sub-dialects:

• Upper Bal (about 15,000 speakers): Ushgul, Kala, Ipar, Mulakh, Mestia, Lenzer, Latal.
• Lower Bal (about 12,000 speakers): Becho, Tskhumar, Etser, Par, Chubekh, Lakham.
• Lashkh.
• Lentekh: Kheled, Khopur, Rtskhmelur, Cholur

Books

• Kevin Tuite, Svan. Université de Montréal. ISBN 3-89586-154-5.

External links

• Official web-site of Svaneti
• Ethnologue report on Svan
• Svan at TITUS database
• ECLING - Svan (includes audio/video samples).
• Svanetia, Svan Language, Svan Songs