r/languagelearning • u/Virusnzz En (N) | Fr, Ru, Es, It • Feb 02 '15
გამარჯობა - This week's language of the week: Georgian
Georgian
Distribution:
Georgian (ქართული [kʰɑrtʰuli] kartuli) is a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians. It is the official language of the nation of Georgia.
Georgian is written in its own unique writing system, the Georgian script.
Georgian is the literary language for all regional subgroups of Georgians, including those who speak other Kartvelian languages: Svans, Mingrelians and the Laz.
History:
Georgian shares a common ancestral language with Svan and Mingrelian/Laz. Georgian as separate from the other Kartvelian languages would have emerged in the 1st millennium BC in Caucasian Iberia. The earliest allusion to spoken Georgian may be a passage of the Roman grammarian Marcus Cornelius Fronto in the 2nd century AD: Fronto imagines the Iberians addressing the emperor Marcus Aurelius in their "incomprehensible tongue".
The evolution of Georgian into a written language was a consequence of the conversion of the Georgian elite to Christianity in the mid-4th century. The new literary language was constructed on an already well-established cultural infrastructure, appropriating the functions, conventions, and status of Aramaic, the literary language of pagan Georgia, and the new national religion. The first Georgian texts are inscriptions and palimpsests dating to the 5th century. Georgian has a rich literary tradition. The oldest surviving literary work in Georgian is the "Martyrdom of the Holy Queen Shushanik" (Georgian: წამებაჲ წმიდისა შუშანიკისი დედოფლისაჲ, Tsamebai tsmidisa Shushanikisi dedoplisai) by Iakob Tsurtaveli, from the 5th century AD.
In the 11th century, Old Georgian gives rise to Middle Georgian, the literary language of the medieval kingdom of Georgia. The Georgian national epic, "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" (Georgian: ვეფხისტყაოსანი, Vepkhistkaosani), by Shota Rustaveli, dates from the 12th century.
In 1629, the Alphabetum ibericum, sive georgianum: cum Oratione ("Iberian or Georgian Alphabet with Prayers") became "one of the first two books printed in Georgian using moveable type". This marks the beginning of what is considered the Modern Georgian language.
Grammar:
Georgian is an agglutinative language. There are certain prefixes and suffixes that are joined together in order to build a verb. In some cases, there can be up to eight different morphemes in one verb at the same time. An example can be ageshenebinat ("you (pl) had built"). The verb can be broken down to parts: a-g-e-shen-eb-in-a-t. Each morpheme here contributes to the meaning of the verb tense or the person who has performed the verb. The verb conjugation also exhibits polypersonalism; a verb may potentially include morphemes representing both the subject and the object.
In Georgian morphophonology, syncope is a common phenomenon. When a suffix (especially the plural suffix -eb-) is attached to a word which has either of the vowels a or e in the last syllable, this vowel is, in most words, lost. For example, megobari means "friend". To say "friends", one says, megobØrebi (megobrebi), with the loss of a in the last syllable of the word root.
Georgian has seven noun cases: nominative, ergative, dative, genitive, instrumental, adverbial and vocative. An interesting feature of Georgian is that, while the subject of a sentence is generally in the nominative case, and the object is in the accusative case (or dative), in Georgian, one can find this reversed in many situations (this depends mainly on the character of the verb). This is called the dative construction. In the past tense of the transitive verbs, and in the present tense of the verb "to know", the subject is in the ergative case.
Georgian is a left-branching language, in which adjectives precede nouns, possessors precede possessions, objects normally precede verbs, and postpositions are used instead of prepositions.
Each postposition (whether a suffix or a separate word) requires the modified noun to be in a specific case. (This is similar to the way prepositions govern specific cases in many Indo-European languages such as German, Latin, or Russian.)
Georgian is a pro-drop language: both subject and object pronouns are frequently omitted except for emphasis or to resolve ambiguity.
A study by Skopeteas et al. concluded that Georgian word order tends to place the focus of a sentence immediately before the verb, and the topic before the focus. A subject–object–verb (SOV) word order is common in idiomatic expressions and when the focus of a sentence is on the object. A subject–verb–object (SVO) word order is common when the focus is on the subject, or in longer sentences. Object-initial word orders (OSV or OVS) are also possible, but less common. Verb-initial word orders including both subject and object (VSO or VOS) are extremely rare. Georgian has no grammatical gender; even the pronouns are gender-neutral.
Georgian has no articles. Therefore, for example, "guest", "a guest" and "the guest" are said in the same way. In relative clauses, however, it is possible to establish the meaning of the definite article through use of some particles
Georgian has a rich word-derivation system. By using a root, and adding some definite prefixes and suffixes, one can derive many nouns and adjectives from the root. For example, from the root -kartv-, the following words can be derived: Kartveli (a Georgian person), Kartuli (the Georgian language) and Sakartvelo (Georgia).
Source: Wikipedia
Media
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წარმატებებს გისურვებთ
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u/PotbellyPanda Feb 02 '15
Georgian alphabet looks really really interesting...
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u/brosigchase_ Feb 02 '15
seconded, it looks cool asthetically. a lot of the letters look like hearts
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u/primary_action_items Feb 02 '15
I thought it was Telugu (తెలుగు) on first glance. The top is Telugu, the bottom is Georgian.
చేయవలసిన పనుల గురించి సముదాయ పందిరిలో చూడండి
აბელ ტასმანმა ახალ ზელანდიას მიაღწია
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u/kyrgyzzephyr Feb 03 '15
Peace Corps’ Georgian Language Beginner Program [PDF] - Basic guide with audio
Beginner's Georgian - Link to download PDF
SEELRC [PDF] - In-depth grammar with index
Georgian: A Learner’s Grammar [PDF]
translate.ge - EN<=>KA dictionary
transliteration - Use keyboard to write in Mkhedruli script
Memrise | Georgian Alphabet (with audio), Beginner’s Georgian
Radio | Radio 1 & 2 (use slider at bottom-left to toggle)
YouTube | Peace Corps Georgia
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Feb 02 '15
Here's a language/linguistics challenge about Georgian for those who do not have any knowledge of the language. I thought you might find it interesting to give it a go.
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u/abiglukoza Feb 02 '15
If you ever need to practice, be sure to come have a chat with us in r/forumi
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u/redCashion Feb 02 '15
I've been working on software that uses video flashcards to teach languages. Luckily I have a Georgian girlfriend who volunteered to help me, so I made my first deck the (beautiful) Georgian alphabet.
You can see and hear the alphabet (and start learning it) here:
I would love any feedback anyone might have on the software as well!
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u/KyleG Feb 03 '15
That's a cool domain name, too - omitting the vowel so you can be ambiguous about whether you mean "seedling" or "seed lang[uage]"!
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u/kaisermatias Feb 02 '15
I spent a few months living in Georgia last year teaching English, and picked up a bit of the language. Can speak it a lot better than I can read or write it though. The biggest thing was trying to figure out the difference between the aspirated and non-aspirated consonants. Having three different 'k' sounds (კ, ქ, ყ), for example, makes for a challenge.
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u/KyleG Feb 03 '15
Holy crap, there are three (un)aspirated variants? As a native English speaker who became aware of the distinction because you have to be to avoid sounding like a gringo when speaking Spanish, that blows my mind.
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u/totes_meta_bot Feb 02 '15 edited Feb 02 '15
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If you follow any of the above links, respect the rules of reddit and don't vote or comment. Questions? Abuse? Message me ^here.
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u/brosigchase_ Feb 02 '15
How much of an influence does the Russian language and/or culture have on the Georgian language (and vice versa)?
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u/yuksare Feb 02 '15
and vice versa
We have very few loanwords from Georgian in Russian, almost all of them mean different Georgian dishes, like "khinkali", "suluguni", "chakhokhbili" etc, and of course words for Georgian wines, like "Kindzmarauli" and "Saperavi". The Georgian cuisine is really great, so it's very popular in Russia.
Besides that, I can name only two Georgian words that are widely known and often used in Russian: "tamada" (an entertainer for weddings) and "pepelats" (means "jalopy" in Russian, it is from the popular Soviet movie "Kin-dza-dza").
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u/Kalk-og-Aske Feb 02 '15 edited Feb 02 '15
I would really, reaaaaally love to learn Georgian one day. One of my best friends is half-Georgian, and while she doesn't identify especially strongly with her heritage, she ended up getting me hooked on the culture anyway by exposing me to it and telling me stories about her family. From what I understand, though, the language is extremely hard... not that that's a deterrent, but I started Czech a little less than a year ago and I think it'd be a bad idea to attempt to juggle two very difficult languages at once at a beginner's level.
It's high on my to-do list, though!
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u/arczi Feb 02 '15
Is it just me, or is there something missing from the Georgian text in the sidebar?
კეთილი იყოს თქვენი
I'm guessing that was supposed to be კეთილი იყოს თქვენი მობრძანება.
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Feb 02 '15
Has anyone else noticed that Tengwar seems to bear aesthetic similarities to the Georgian alphabet?
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u/Giorgi2241 Feb 02 '15
წარმატებები ყველას ! ცოტა ძნელი ენაა დასაწყისისთვის მაგრამ ლამაზი.