A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
 |
| Georgian | |
|---|---|
| kartuli ena | |
| ქართული ენა | |
 Kartuli written in Georgian script | |
| Pronunciation | [ˈkʰartʰuli ˈena] |
| Native to | Georgia |
| Region | South Caucasus |
| Ethnicity | Georgians |
| speakers | L1: 3.76 million (2020)[1] L2: 150,000 (2014)[1] |
Kartvelian
| |
Early form | |
| Dialects | |
| Official status | |
Official language in |  Georgia |
| Regulated by | Cabinet of Georgia |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | ka |
| ISO 639-2 | geo (B) kat (T) |
| ISO 639-3 | kat |
| Glottolog | nucl1302 |
| Linguasphere | 42-CAB-baa – bac |
 | |
Georgian (ქართული ენა, romanized: kartuli ena, pronounced [ˈkʰartʰuli ˈena]) is the most widely spoken Kartvelian language; it also serves as the literary language or lingua franca for speakers of related languages.[2] It is the official language of Georgia and the native or primary language of 87.6% of its population.[3] Its speakers today amount to approximately 3.76 million. Georgian is written in its own unique alphabet.[1]
Classification
No claimed genetic links between the Kartvelian languages and any other language family in the world are accepted in mainstream linguistics. Among the Kartvelian languages, Georgian is most closely related to the so-called Zan languages (Megrelian and Laz); glottochronological studies indicate that it split from the latter approximately 2700 years ago. Svan is a more distant relative that split off much earlier, perhaps 4000 years ago.[4]
Dialects
Standard Georgian is largely based on the Kartlian dialect.[5] Over the centuries, it has exerted a strong influence on the other dialects. As a result, they are all, generally, mutually intelligible with standard Georgian, and with one another.[6]
History
| Part of a series on |
| Georgians ქართველები |
|---|
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| Nation |
| Georgia |
| Ancient Kartvelian people |
| Subgroups |
| Culture |
| Languages |
| Religion |
| Symbols |
| History of Georgia |
The history of the Georgian language is conventionally divided into the following phases:[7]
- Early Old Georgian: 5th–8th centuries
- Classical Old Georgian: 9th–11th centuries
- Middle Georgian: 11th/12th–17th/18th centuries
- Modern Georgian: 17th/18th century–present
The earliest extant references to Georgian are found in the writings of Marcus Cornelius Fronto, a Roman grammarian from the 2nd century AD.[8] The first direct attestations of the language are inscriptions and palimpsests dating to the 5th century, and the oldest surviving literary work is the 5th century Martyrdom of the Holy Queen Shushanik by Iakob Tsurtaveli.
The emergence of Georgian as a written language appears to have been the result of the Christianization of Georgia in the mid-4th century, which led to the replacement of Aramaic as the literary language.[7]
By the 11th century, Old Georgian had developed into Middle Georgian. The most famous work of this period is the epic poem The Knight in the Panther's Skin, written by Shota Rustaveli in the 12th century.
In 1629, a certain Nikoloz Cholokashvili authored the first printed books written (partially) in Georgian, the Alphabetum Ibericum sive Georgianum cum Oratione and the Dittionario giorgiano e italiano. These were meant to help western Catholic missionaries learn Georgian for evangelical purposes.[9]
Phonology
Consonants
On the left are IPA symbols, and on the right are the corresponding letters of the modern Georgian alphabet, which is essentially phonemic.
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar |
Post-alveolar | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m მ | n ნ | |||||
| Stop | aspirated | pʰ ფ | tʰ თ | kʰ ქ | |||
| voiced | b ბ7, 8 | d დ7, 8 | ɡ გ7, 8 | ||||
| ejective | pʼ პ | tʼ ტ | kʼ კ | qʼ3 ყ | |||
| Affricate | (aspirated) | t͡sʰ1 ც | t͡ʃʰ1 ჩ | ||||
| voiced | d͡z ძ | d͡ʒ ჯ | |||||
| ejective | t͡sʼ წ | t͡ʃʼ ჭ | |||||
| Fricative | voiceless | s ს | ʃ შ | x 2 ხ | h ჰ | ||
| voiced | v ვ6 | z ზ | ʒ ჟ | ɣ 2 ღ | |||
| Vibrant | r რ4 | ||||||
| Lateral | l ლ5 | ||||||
- Opinions differ on the aspiration of /t͡sʰ, t͡ʃʰ/, as it is non-contrastive.[citation needed]
- Opinions differ on how to classify /x/ and /ɣ/; Aronson (1990) classifies them as post-velar, Hewitt (1995) argues that they range from velar to uvular according to context.
- The uvular ejective stop is commonly realised as an uvular ejective fricative but it can also be , , or , they are in free variation.[12]
- /r/ is realised as an alveolar tap [13] though occurs in free variation.
- /l/ is pronounced as velarized before back vowels, it is pronounced as in the environment of front vowels.[14]
- /v/ has the following allophones.[13]
- In initial positions, /b, d, ɡ/ are pronounced as weakly voiced .[16]
- In word-final positions, /b, d, ɡ/ may be devoiced and aspirated to .[16][15]
Former /qʰ/ (ჴ) has merged with /x/ (ხ), leaving only the latter.
The glottalization of the ejectives is rather light, and in fact Georgian transliterates the tenuis stops in foreign words and names with the ejectives. In many romanization systems, it is not marked for transcriptions such as ejective p, t, ts, ch, k and q, against aspirated p‘, t‘, ts‘, ch‘ and k‘ (as in transcriptions of Armenian).
The coronal occlusives (/tʰ tʼ d n/, not necessarily affricates) are variously described as apical dental, laminal alveolar, and "dental".[10]
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i ი | u უ | |
| Mid | e ე | o ო | |
| Open | a ა |
Per Canepari, the main realizations of the vowels are , e̞, ä, o̞, u.[21]
Aronson describes their realizations as i̞, e̞, ä (but "slightly fronted"), o̞, u̞.[20]
Shosted transcribed one speaker's pronunciation more-or-less consistently with i, ɛ, ɑ, ɔ, u.[22]
Allophonically, ə may be inserted to break up consonant clusters, as in /dɡas/ dəɡäs.[23]
Prosodyedit
Prosody in Georgian involves stress, intonation, and rhythm. Stress is very weak, and linguists disagree as to where stress occurs in words.[20] Jun, Vicenik, and Lofstedt have proposed that Georgian stress and intonation are the result of pitch accents on the first syllable of a word and near the end of a phrase.[24]
According to Borise,[25] Georgian has fixed initial word-level stress cued primarily by greater syllable duration and intensity of the initial syllable of a word.[26] Georgian vowels in non-initial syllables are pronounced with a shorter duration compared to vowels in initial syllables.[27]
Phonotacticsedit
Georgian contains many "harmonic clusters" involving two consonants of a similar type (voiced, aspirated, or ejective) that are pronounced with only a single release; e.g. ბგერა bgera (sound), ცხოვრება tskhovreba (life), and წყალი ts'q'ali (water).[28] There are also frequent consonant clusters, sometimes involving more than six consonants in a row, as may be seen in words like გვფრცქვნი gvprtskvni ("you peel us") and მწვრთნელი mts'vrtneli ("trainer").
Vicenik has observed that Georgian vowels following ejective stops have creaky voice and suggests this may be one cue distinguishing ejectives from their aspirated and voiced counterparts.[29]
Writing systemedit
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| Calligraphy |
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_-_Georgian_language_alphabet.png)
Georgian has been written in a variety of scripts over its history. Currently the Mkhedruli script is almost completely dominant; the others are used mostly in religious documents and architecture.
Mkhedruli has 33 letters in common use; a half dozen more are obsolete in Georgian, though still used in other alphabets, like Mingrelian, Laz, and Svan. The letters of Mkhedruli correspond closely to the phonemes of the Georgian language.
According to the traditional account written down by Leonti Mroveli in the 11th century, the first Georgian script was created by the first ruler of the Kingdom of Iberia, Pharnavaz, in the 3rd century BC. The first examples of a Georgian script date from the 5th century AD. There are now three Georgian scripts, called Asomtavruli "capitals", Nuskhuri "small letters", and Mkhedruli. The first two are used together as upper and lower case in the writings of the Georgian Orthodox Church and together are called Khutsuri "priests' alphabet".
In Mkhedruli, there is no case. Sometimes, however, a capital-like effect, called Mtavruli, "title" or "heading", is achieved by modifying the letters so that their vertical sizes are identical and they rest on the baseline with no descenders. These capital-like letters are often used in page headings, chapter titles, monumental inscriptions, and the like.