Old Georgian language

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Old Georgian
enay kartuli
ႤႬႠჂ ႵႠႰႧႳႪႨ
Georgian inscription at Bir El-Qutt, 430 AD.jpg
Old Georgian of Bir el Qutt inscriptions
Native to Colchis, Kingdom of Iberia, Principality of Iberia, Principality of Tao-Klarjeti, Kingdom of Georgia
Region Caucasus
Era5th to 11th centuries
Kartvelian
  • Old Georgian
Georgian script
Language codes
ISO 639-3 oge
oge
Glottolog oldg1234 [1]
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For a guide to IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Old Georgian (Georgian :ძველი ქართული ენაdzveli kartuli ena, Old Georgian: ႤႬႠჂ ႵႠႰႧႳႪႨ, enay kartuli) the literary language of Georgian monarchies in the 5th century. The language remains in use as the liturgical language of the Georgian Orthodox Church. Spoken Old Georgian gave way to what is classified as Middle Georgian in the 11th century, which in turn developed into the modern Georgian language in the 18th century.

Georgian language Official language of Georgia

Georgian is a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians. It is the official language of Georgia. Georgian is written in its own 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.

A literary language is the form of a language used in its literary writing. It is typically a non-standard dialect or standardized variety of the language. It can sometimes differ noticeably from the various spoken lects, but difference between literary and non-literary forms is greater in some languages than in others. Where there is a strong divergence between a written form and the spoken vernacular, the language is said to exhibit diglossia.

Georgia (country) Country in the Caucasus region

Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital and largest city is Tbilisi. Georgia covers a territory of 69,700 square kilometres (26,911 sq mi), and its 2017 population is about 3.718 million. Georgia is a unitary parliamentary republic, with the government elected through a representative democracy.

Contents

Periodization

Two periods are distinguished within Old Georgian: Early Old Georgian (5th to 8th centuries) and Classical Old Georgian (9th to 11th centuries). Two different dialects are represented in Early Old Georgian, known as Khanmet’i (ხანმეტი, 5th to 7th c.) and Haemet’i (ჱაემეტი, 7th and 8th c.). They are so named after the presence of a second person subject prefix and a third person object prefix kh- or h- in the verbal morphology where Classical Old Georgian has h-, s- or zero. [2]

Texts

The corpus of Early Old Georgian texts is limited in size, consisting of a dozen inscriptions and eight manuscripts containing religious texts. The literature in Classical Old Georgian has a wider scope, including philosophical and historiographical works.

Phoneme inventory

Old Georgian had 29 phonemic consonants and 5 phonemic vowels. The native spelling also distinguishes the semivowel y, which is an allophone of the vowel i in postvocalic position.

Old Georgian consonants [3]
LabialDental/
Alveolar
Alveo-
palatal
VelarUvularGlottal
Voiceless aspirated stopp [pʰ]t [tʰ]k [kʰ]q [qʰ]
Voiceless glottalized stopp’ [pˀ]t’ [tˀ]k’ [kˀ]q’ [qˀ]
Voiced stopbdg [4]
Voiceless aspirated affricatets [tsʰ]ch [tʃʰ]
Voiceless glottalized affricatets’ [tsˀ]ch’ [tʃˀ]
Voiced affricatedzj [dʒ]
Voiceless fricativessh [ʃ]kh [χ]h
Voiced fricativezzh [ʒ]gh [ʁ]
Nasalmn
Trillr
Laterall
Semivowelwy [j]
Old Georgian vowels
FrontCentralBack
Highiu
Mideo
Lowa

Script

Old Georgian was written in its own alphabetic script, known as Asomtavruli "capital letters" or Mrglovani "rounded". The alphabet is very nearly phonemic, showing an excellent "fit" between phonemes and graphemes. It is clearly modelled on the Greek alphabet, showing basically the same alphabetic order, and with letters representing non-Greek phonemes gathered at the end. Apart from letters for nearly all Georgian phonemes, the alphabet also contains three letters representing Greek phonemes not found in Georgian (ē, ü and ō). Most individual letters seem to be entirely independent designs, with only a few based directly on their Greek counterparts (cf. Greek Φ Θ Χ [pʰ tʰ kʰ], Asomtavruli Ⴔ Ⴇ Ⴕ).

Old Georgian Asomtavruli alphabet
GreekΑΒΓΔΕϜΖΗΘΙΚΛΜΝ(Ξ)ΟΠ(Ϙ)Ρ
Asomtavruli
Transliterationabgdevzētik’lmnyop’zhr
GreekΣΤΥΦΧ(Ψ)Ω
Asomtavruli
Transliterationst’üpkghq’shchtsdzts’ch’khqjhō

Orthography

Old Georgian orthography is quite consistent, in the sense that the same word is usually written in the same way in all instances. Spelling is nearly phonemic, with almost all phonemes exclusively represented by a single letter. The exceptions are described below. [5]

Vowel u

The most conspicuous exception to the rule that each phoneme is written with its own letter is the vowel u, which is consistently written with the digraph ႭჃ 〈oü〉, for example ႮႭჃႰႨ 〈p’oüri〉 p’uri "bread". This usage was evidently adopted from Greek spelling, which writes u as ου. In the later Nuskhuri script, the original digraph ⴍⴣ 〈oü〉 merged into a single letter 〈u〉 (modern Mkhedruli script ). A matching Asomtavruli single-letter counterpart was then divised; this letter was not part of the original alphabet, and was not used in the Old Georgian period.

Digraph (orthography) pair of characters used to write one phoneme

A digraph or digram is a pair of characters used in the orthography of a language to write either a single phoneme, or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined.

Semivowel w

The semivowel w is written in two ways, depending on its position within the word. When it occurs directly after a consonant, it is written with the digraph ႭჃ 〈oü〉, for example ႹႭჃႤႬ 〈choüen〉 chwen "we", ႢႭჃႰႨႲႨ 〈goürit’i〉 gwrit’i "turtledove". The digraph ႭჃ 〈oü〉 thus represents both w and u, without differentiation in the spelling, for example ႵႭჃႧႨ 〈khoüti〉 khuti "five" vs. ႤႵႭჃႱႨ 〈ekoüsi〉 ekwsi "six".

In all other positions, w is written with the letter 〈v〉, for example ႧႭႥႪႨ 〈tovli〉 towli "snow", ႥႤႪႨ 〈veli〉 weli "field", ႩႠႰႠႥႨ 〈k’aravi〉 k’arawi "tent".

The two spellings of w clearly represent an allophonic variation like the one described for modern Georgian, [6] between [w] in postconsonantal position and [ʋ] or [β] in other positions. In modern Georgian spelling (as standardized in 1879), both [w] and [ʋ/β] are consistently written with 〈v〉, and spellings with 〈v〉 instead of the expected ჃႭ 〈oü〉 are already found in Old Georgian. [7]

Semivowel y

The initial vowel i- of a case suffix is realized as y- after a vowel, and this allophonic y has its own letter in the alphabet, for example ႣႤႣႠჂ ႨႤႱႭჃჂႱႠ 〈deday iesoüysa〉 deda-y iesu-ysa , phonemically /deda-i iesu-isa/ (mother-NOM Jesus-GEN) "the mother of Jesus".

The "Greek" letters

The Asomtavruli alphabet contains three letters which are not needed for the writing of native words: 〈ē〉, 〈ü〉 and 〈ō〉. These were added to the alphabet in order to make possible a letter-for-letter transliteration of Greek names and loanwords. They were indeed occasionally used to write the Greek vowels ē (ēta), ü (ypsilon) and ō (ōmega). As these vowels are alien to Georgian, they were replaced in actual pronunciation by ey, wi and ow respectively, as can be deduced from old variant spellings, and from corresponding modern forms. For example, Greek Αἴγυπτος is written ႤႢჃႮႲႤ 〈egüp’t’e〉 egwip’t’e "Egypt" (cf. modern Georgian ეგვიპტეegvip’t’e).

In native words, the letter 〈ō〉 was mainly used to write the vocative particle, for example Ⴥ ႣႤႣႨႩႠႺႭ 〈ō dedik’atso〉 o dedik’atso "o woman!"

The letters 〈ē〉 and 〈ü〉 on the other hand were frequently used in the spelling of native words, as a short-hand way of representing the sequences ey and wi, for example ႫႤႴჁ 〈mepē〉 mepey "king", ႶჃႬႭჂ 〈ghünoy〉 ghwinoy "wine". Spelling can thus vary within a paradigm, for example ႱႨႲႷႭჃႠჂ 〈sit’q’oüay〉 sit’q’wa-y "word" (nominative case) vs. ႱႨႲႷჃႱႠ 〈sit’q’üsa〉 sit’q’w-isa (genitive). [8] The sequences ey and wi could also be written out in full however, for example ႫႤႴႤჂ 〈mepey〉 mepey, ႶႭჃႨႬႭჂ 〈ghoüinoy〉 ghwinoy "wine" (also ႶჃႨႬႭჂ 〈ghüinoy〉, a mixed spelling).

Notes

  1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Old Georgian". Glottolog 3.0 . Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  2. Tuite (2008:146).
  3. The transliteration used here is the National Transliteration System, devised by Shukia Apridonidze and Levan Chkhaidze and promulgated by the Georgian Academy of Sciences in 2002. This system leaves aspiration unmarked, and marks glottalization with an apostrophe. International Phonetic Alphabet equivalents are included in square brackets when different.
  4. A voiced uvular stop *ɢ can be reconstructed for Proto-Kartvelian (Fähnrich 2007:15). In Georgian this consonant merged with gh in prehistoric times.
  5. This section is mainly based on Schanidse (1982:18-33).
  6. Aronson (1997:930).
  7. Schanidse (1982:26) lists a number of words which are written with 〈v〉 instead of the expected ႭჃ 〈oü〉. This seems to be an orthographical convention, as in all cited examples w is followed by a vowel and l (ႠႣႥႨႪႨ 〈advili〉 adwili "easy", ႷႥႤႪႨ 〈q’veli〉 q’weli "cheese", etc.), with just one exception (ႰႥႠ 〈rva〉 rwa "eight"). Romanized transcriptions of Old georgian conventionally reflect the different spellings of w, for example chwen, gwrit’i, tovli, veli.
  8. Schanidse (1982:41).

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