Brief Information
Georgian is the official language of the Republic of Georgia. It is also spoken in Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkey, Russia, and Israel. The total number of speakers is estimated to be at least 4.5 million (according to the estimate of 2006), with approximately 4.2 million in Georgia (according to the estimate of 2002), around 40,000 in Turkey (according to the estimate of 2002), and about 170,500 in Russia (according to the census of 2010).
The literary Georgian language is based on the Kakhetian dialect. The following dialects are distinguished: Kakhetian, Kartlian, Imeretian, Rachan, Lechkhumian, Gurian, Javakhian, Meskhian, and Adjarian. There is also a group of archaic mountain dialects in eastern Georgia. The dialects are Kheysur, Mokhev, Mtiul-Gudamakarian, Tush, and Pshav. Three dialects are spoken outside of Georgia – Ingilo in Azerbaijan, Ferejdan in Iran, and Imerxev in Turkey.
Genealogy
Georgian belongs to the Kartvelian language family, which also includes Svan, Mingrelian, and Laz languages.
Language functioning
- Legal status
- Writing system
- Language standardization
- Domains of language usage
Georgian does not have legal status in Russia.
Modern Georgian has 33 letters.
The literary Georgian language is based on the Kakhetian dialect.
Family / everyday communication
Family / everyday communication
Georgian is used for family and everyday communication.
Education
Education
In some higher educational institutions in Russia, optional teaching of Georgian is conducted.
Mass media
Culture
Culture
There are Georgian ensembles.
Science
Science
There are some scientific publications in Georgian.
Folklore
Folklore
There are folklore publications in Georgian.
Literature
Literature
There is fiction in Georgian.
Religion
Religion
Georgian is used in this domain.
Legislation
Administrative activities
Legal proceedings
Industry
Agriculture
Trade and service
Transport
Internet
Internet
Georgian is used in this domain in Russia.
Language structure
Phonetics
Modern Georgian has 5 vowels and 28 consonant phonemes.
Phonetics
The vowel system is represented by simple phonemes.
*translation of the table:
Affricates and stop consonants form triple oppositions: voiceless aspirated - voiced – ejective. Combinations of front and back consonants (such as tk, dg, px, cx, etc.), as well as three or more consecutive consonants, are widespread. There are almost no morphological alterations. Stress is weak and has no distinctive function.
In Georgian, there are open syllables of the type V, CV, SV, and closed syllables of the type CVC, CVS, SVC, SVS.
Morphology
The morphological structure is mainly agglutinative.
Morphology
Georgian has a single type of declension (6 cases and 2 numbers for nouns). Some postpositions are difficult to distinguish from case endings.
The morphology of the verb is complex and includes multiple types of conjugation, the differences between which are not always motivated semantically or formally; suppletion is widespread. Verbs express inflectional categories of tense, aspect, mood, person, number, and derivational categories of voice, causation, directionality, and resultativity. The verb agrees with the subject and the object in person and number.
Georgian has developed noun and verb formation.
Syntax
The sentence structure is nominative with elements of active construction. The word order in the sentence is free, with the dependent usually preceding the head.
Syntax
The sentence structure is nominative with elements of active construction. The word order in the sentence is free, with the dependent usually preceding the head.
Vocabulary
The vocabulary is represented by both native and borrowed words.
Vocabulary
Native words mainly derive from the Kartvelian language. The main sources of borrowing words were Greek, Persian, Arabic, Syriac, Armenian, and Turkic languages.
Исследование языка
The leading researchers of Georgian were Marr, Tsagareli, and Bross. Further research were represented by the works of Shanidze, Chikobava, Topuria, Klimov, and others.
Language experts
Testelets Yakov G.
(Moscow, Russia)He is a specialist in the field of typology and syntactic theory, and a researcher of Caucasian languages. He is engaged in the development of the issue of word order and constituent structure in the noun phrase (based on the material of Kartvelian and Dagestanian languages), typology of ergative constructions (Kartvelian, Northeast Caucasian, Indo-Iranian, Australian languages).
Research centres
Core references
Grammatical descriptions: grammars, sketches
Marr N.Ya. Grammatika drevneliteraturnogo gruzinskogo âzyka [Grammar of the ancient literary Georgian language]. M.-L., 1925.
Rudenko B. T. Grammatika gruzinskogo âzyka [Grammar of the Georgian language]. M.-L., 1940.
Chikobava A.S. Gruzinskij âzyk // Âzyki narodov SSSR. IV. Iberijsko-kavkazskie âzyki [Georgian language // Languages of the peoples of the USSR. IV. Iberian-Caucasian languages], M., 1967.
Shanidze A. Osnovy grammatiki gruzinskogo âzyka. Morfologiâ. [Fundamentals of Georgian Grammar. Morphology]. Tb., 1973 (in Georgian).
Selected papers on grammatical issues
Glonti A. Issues of Georgian lexicography. Tb., 1983 (in Georgian).
Harris A. Diachronic Syntax: The Kartvelian Case. Orlando:Academic Press, 1985.
Holisky D. A. Aspect and Georgian Medial Verbs. Delmar/ New York: Caravan Books, 1981.
Работы по этнологии
Javakhishvili I. Issues of history and writing of the Georgian language. Tb., 1956 (in Georgian).
Dictionaries
Abuladze I. Dictionary of the Old Georgian language. Tb., 1973 (in Georgian).
Sarjveladze Z. Dictionary of the Old Georgian language. Materials. Tb., 1995 (in Georgian).
G. Klimov. Etymological Dictionary of the Kartvelian Languages. Trends in Linguistics Documentation. V. 16. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1998.
Работы по социолингвистике
Khalilov M. Sh. Gruzinsko-dagestanskie âzykovye kontakty [Georgian-Dagestan language contacts]. - M., 2004. - 286 p.
Resources
Corpora and text collections
The Georgian Language Corpus (GLC) is developed at the Institute of Linguistic Studies of Ilia State University during 2009-2016. At present the corpus includes two main sections, monolingual and bilingual. The monolingual section consists of New and Modern Georgian, Old and Middle Georgian.
Bible translations into Georgian are available in printed and electronic form.
Other electronic resources
Data for this page kindly provided by
Sources:
Dzidziguri Sh., Chanishvili N. Georgian language // Languages of the world: Caucasian languages. M., 2001.
Testelets Ya. G. GEORGIAN LANGUAGE // Great Russian Encyclopedia. Electronic version (2018).
Photos
