Kartvelian languages
The Kartvelian languages are a language family indigenous to the South Caucasus and spoken primarily in Georgia, with large groups of native speakers in Russia, Iran, the United States, Europe, Israel, and northeastern parts of Turkey. There are approximately 5.2 million speakers of Kartvelian languages worldwide.
The Kartvelian family is not known to be related to any other language family, making it one of the world's primary language families. The first literary source in a Kartvelian language is the Old Georgian Bir el Qutt inscriptions, written in ancient Georgian Asomtavruli script at the once-existing Georgian monastery near Bethlehem, which dates back to c. 430 AD.
The Georgian script is the writing system used to write all Kartvelian languages, though the Laz language in Turkey is also written using a Latin script.
Social and cultural status
Georgian is the official language of Georgia and the main language for literary and business use for all Kartvelian speakers in Georgia. It is written with an original and distinctive alphabet, and the oldest surviving literary text dates from the 5th century AD. The old Georgian script seems to have been derived from Aramaic, with Greek influences.Mingrelian has been written with the Georgian alphabet since 1864, especially in the period from 1930 to 1938, when the Mingrelians enjoyed some cultural autonomy, and after 1989.
The Laz language was written chiefly between 1927 and 1937, and now again in Turkey, with the Latin alphabet. Laz, however, is disappearing as its speakers are integrating into mainstream Turkish society.
Classification
The Kartvelian language family consists of four closely related languages:- Svan, with approximately 35,000–40,000 native speakers in Georgia, mainly in the northwestern mountainous region of Svaneti and the Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia
- Georgian-Zan
- * Georgian with approximately 4 million native speakers, mainly in Georgia. There are Georgian-speaking communities in Russia, Turkey, Iran, Israel, and EU countries, but the current number and distribution of them are unknown.
- ** Judaeo-Georgian with some 85,000 speakers, is the only Kartvelian Jewish dialect, its status being the subject of debate among scholars.
- * Zan
- ** Mingrelian, with some 500,000 native speakers in 1989, mainly in the western regions of Georgia, namely Samegrelo and Abkhazia. The number of Mingrelian speakers in Abkhazia was very strongly affected by the war with Georgia in the 1990s, the expulsion and flight of ethnic Georgian population, the majority of which were Mingrelians. Nevertheless, Georgians in Abkhazia make up 18% of the population, in Gali district 91.5%. The Mingrelians displaced from Abkhazia are scattered elsewhere in the Georgian government territory, with dense clusters in Tbilisi and Zugdidi.
- ** Laz, with 22,000 native speakers in 1980, mostly in the Black Sea littoral area of northeast Turkey, and with some 2,000 in Adjara, Georgia.
Genealogical tree
On the basis of glottochronological analysis, Georgi Klimov dates the split of the Proto-Kartvelian into Svan and Proto-Karto-Zan to the 19th century BC, and the further division into Georgian and Zan to the 8th century BC, although with the reservation that such dating is very preliminary and substantial further study is required.
Higher-level connections
No relationship with other languages, including the two North Caucasian language families, has been demonstrated so far. Some linguists, such as Tamaz V. Gamkrelidze, have proposed that the Kartvelian family is part of a much larger Nostratic language family, but both the concept of a Nostratic family and Georgian's relation to it are not considered likely by other linguists.Certain grammatical similarities with Basque, especially in the case system, have often been pointed out. However, the hypothesis of a relationship, which also tends to link the Caucasian languages with other non-Indo-European and non-Semitic languages of the Near East of ancient times, is generally considered to lack conclusive evidence. Any similarities to other linguistic phyla may be due to areal influences. Heavy borrowing in both directions has been observed; therefore, it is likely that certain grammatical features have been influenced as well. If the Dené–Caucasian hypothesis, which attempts to link Basque, Burushaski, the North Caucasian families and other phyla, is correct, then the similarities to Basque may also be due to these influences, however indirect. Certain Kartvelian–Indo-European lexical links are revealed at the protolanguage level, which are ascribed to the early contacts between Proto-Kartvelian and Proto-Indo-European populations.
Comparative grammar
Regular correspondences
| Proto-Kartv. | Geo. | Zan | Svan | |
| Voiced stops | *ბ | b | b | b |
| Voiced stops | *დ | d | d | d |
| Voiced stops | *გ | g | g | g / ǯ / |
| Voiced affricates | *ძ | ʒ | ʒ | ʒ / z / |
| Voiced affricates | *ძ₁ | ʒ | ǯ | ǯ / ž / |
| Voiced affricates | *ჯ | ǯ | ǯg / ʒg / | ǯg / sg / |
| Voiced fricatives | *ზ | z | z | z |
| Voiced fricatives | *ზ₁ | z | ž | ž |
| Voiced fricatives | *ღ | ɣ | ɣ | ɣ |
| Voiced fricatives | *უ̂ | v | v | w |
| Ejective stops | *პ | ṗ | ṗ | ṗ |
| Ejective stops | *ტ | ṭ | ṭ | ṭ |
| Ejective stops | *კ | ḳ | ḳ | ḳ / č' / |
| Ejective stops | *ყ | qʼ | qʼ / ʔ / ḳ / / | qʼ |
| Ejective affr. | *წ | ċ | ċ | ċ |
| Ejective affr. | *წ₁ | ċ | čʼ | čʼ |
| Ejective affr. | *ლʼ | ċ | čʼ | h |
| Ejective affr. | *ჭ | čʼ | čʼḳ / ċḳ / | čʼḳ / šḳ / |
| Voiceless stops and affr. | *ფ | p | p | p |
| Voiceless stops and affr. | *თ | t | t | t |
| Voiceless stops and affr. | *ც | c | c | c |
| Voiceless stops and affr. | *ც₁ | c | č | č |
| Voiceless stops and affr. | *ჩ | č | čk | čk / šg / |
| Voiceless stops and affr. | *ქ | k | k | k / č / |
| Voiceless stops and affr. | *ჴ | x | x | q |
| Voiceless fricatives | *ხ | x | x | x |
| Voiceless fricatives | *შ | š | šk / sk / | šg / sg / |
| Voiceless fricatives | *ს | s | s | s |
| Voiceless fricatives | *ს₁ | s | š | š |
| Voiceless fricatives | *ლʿ | s | ∅ | l |
| Liquids | *ლ | l | l | l |
| Liquids | *რ | r | r | r |
| Nasals | *მ | m | m | m |
| Nasals | *ნ | n | n | n |
Noun classification
The Kartvelian languages classify objects as intelligent and unintelligent beings. Grammatical gender does not exist.Declension
Verb
Kartvelian verbs can indicate one, two, or three grammatical persons. A performer of an action is called the subject and affected persons are objects. The person may be singular or plural. According to the number of persons, the verbs are classified as unipersonal, bipersonal or tripersonal.- Unipersonal verbs have only a subject and so are always intransitive.
- Bipersonal verbs have a subject and one object, which can be direct or indirect. The verb is:
- *transitive when the object is direct;
- *intransitive if the object is indirect.
- Tripersonal verbs have one subject and both direct and indirect objects and are ditransitive.
By means of special markers Kartvelian verbs can indicate four kinds of action intentionality :
- subjective—shows that the action is intended for oneself,
- objective—the action is intended for another person,
- objective-passive—the action is intended for another person and at the same time indicating the passiveness of subject,
- neutral—neutral with respect to intention.
| Version | Mingrelian | Laz | Georgian | Svan |
| Subjective | -i- | -i- | -i- | -i- |
| Objective | -u- | -u- | -u- | -o- |
| Objective-passive | -a- | -a- | -e- | -e- |
| Neutral | -o-/-a- | -o- | -a- | -a- |