Georgian is the official language of the country of Georgia, one of the former Soviet Republics located in the Caucasus. Within Georgia, the Georgian language is used in all areas of society, and a working knowledge of the language is essential for effective communication in the country. There are also people who speak Georgian in parts of Iran, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Russia. The total number of people who speak Georgian is estimated at around 4.1 million.
Georgian is a member of the South Caucasian family of languages.
It is the most widely spoken member of that language family. Georgian has a number of regional dialects which are usually mutually intelligible.
The current Georgian alphabet, called the Mkhedruli alphabet, appeared between the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The direction of writing (from left to right), the use of separate symbols for the vowel sounds, the numerical values assigned to the letters in earlier times, and the order of the letters all point to significant Greek influence on the script. The Mkhedruli alphabet is shown below.
The Mkhedruli alphabet has 33 letters. It does not have capital and lowercase letters. Georgian is written from left to right, just like English.
Two older alphabets, the Asomtavruli and the Nuskhuri, are still sometimes used for religious purposes by the Georgian Orthodox church. In such writing, Asomtavruli letters are used as capitals and Nuskhuri letters are used for lowercase text.
Generally speaking, the written forms of Georgian words and their pronunciation correspond extremely closely. Certain aspects of Georgian pronunciation can be tricky for non-native speakers, including the sounds of some of the consonants. Practice is required to learn the distinctions between 'voiced', 'voiceless aspirated', and 'voiceless ejective' sounds. Georgian has five vowel sounds. In general, there are no diphthongs in Georgian.
Stress in Georgian is dynamic and very weak. It is not significant at the lexical level (that is, it is not used to differentiate between words that are otherwise the same). In words of two and three syllables, the stress is usually on the first. In longer words, the stress is often on the third syllable from the end (the antepenultimate). However, there is often a secondary stress in addition to the main one in longer words.
Georgian has a very rich vocabulary that is capable of meeting the widest range of demands, from traditional folk tales, through lyrical poetry, to the requirements of modern science and technology. Throughout its long history, Georgian has borrowed from the other languages with which it came into contact, and this process continues up to the present day. The Arabic, Persian, and Turkish languages constitute a very important source of loanwords. Greek, Latin, and the major European languages (including Russian) have also provided a very large number of loanwords. With the exception of some early loans directly from Greek, these borrowings have largely been via Russian, and are of relatively recent origin.
Georgian nouns do not distinguish gender. However, nouns, adjectives, and pronouns are declined to show case, meaning they change form to indicate their role in a sentence. Georgian has seven cases. There are no articles in the Georgian language. Georgian uses postpositions (which come after the words they apply to) in place of the English prepositions (which come before such words).
The Georgian verb is relatively complex. The familiar tenses (past, present, future, etc.) are replaced by what are known as 'screeves', which are characterized by more than just differences in the time reference. Georgian numbers are also interesting. The Georgian counting system is fundamentally vigesimal (that is, based on 20), with some decimal features.
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