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Home , Armenian alphabet, Azerbaijani alphabet, Georgian language

Universidad Puerto Rico/Recinto de Río Piedras Facultad de Humanidades/Departamento de Historia HIST 4176- Historia Cultural de Rusia. Dra. Nélida Muñoz de Frontera

BANDERAS Y LENGUAS DEL CÁUCASO

1)

Georgian (Mkhedruli)

Origin

The Mkhedruli alphabet developed from an older alphabet known as Nuskha-khucuri between the 11th and 13th centuries. The name Mkhedruli comes from the word mkhedari which means 'of horseman'. The Nuskha-khucuri alphabet developed from the Asomtavruli alphabet. At first Mkhedruli was used only for secular writing, while for religious writings mixture of the two older was used. Eventually Nuskha-khucuri became the main alphabet for religious texts and Asomtavruli was used only for titles and for the first letters of sentences. This system of mixing the two alphabets was known as khucesi (priest) writing.

Eventually the two older alphabets fell out of use and Mkhedruli became the sole alphabet used to write Georgian. However, in the writings of a linguist called Akaki Shanidze (1887-1987) and in works written in his honour, letters from the Asomtavruli alphabet are used to mark proper names and the beginning of sentences. Shanidze' attempt to popularise such usage met with little success.

1 Universidad de Puerto Rico/Recinto de Río Piedras Facultad de Humanidades/Departamento de Historia HIST 4176- Historia Cultural de Rusia. Dra. Nélida Muñoz de Frontera

The first printed material in the Georgian language, in the Mkhedruli alphabet, was published in 1669. Since then the alphabet has changed very little, though a few letters were added by Anton in the 18th century, and 5 letters were dropped in the 1860s when introduced a number of reforms.

Notable features

 Type of : alphabet

 Direction of writing: left to right, horizontal

 When printed, Mkhedruli letters are not connected at all, though they can in cursive handwriting.

 The headline letters are used for titles and headlines.

 Georgian has no symbols for numerals. Each has a numerical value as well as a phonological one, but Indic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc) are normally used.

 The order of the Mkhedruli letters is based on that of the . The Georgian consontants with no Greek equivalents come at the end of the alphabet.

Used to write

Georgian, a Kartvelian or South Caucasian language spoken by about 4.1 million people. It is spoken mainly in Georgia but also in , , , Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, , Tajikistan, , , Ukraine, USA and Uzbekistan

Mingrelian, a South Caucasian language spoken in north-western Georgia by perhaps half a million people. Laz, a South Caucasian language closely related to Mingrelian and spoken in Turkey and Georgia by about 33,000 people. Svan, a South Caucasian language with about 30,000 speakers mainly in the northwest of Georgia. Abkhaz, a Northwest Caucasian language, was also once written with the Mkhedruli alphabet, but is now written with the Cyrillic alphabet.

2 Universidad de Puerto Rico/Recinto de Río Piedras Facultad de Humanidades/Departamento de Historia HIST 4176- Historia Cultural de Rusia. Dra. Nélida Muñoz de Frontera

Mkhedruli alphabet

Notes

 The letters in red are no longer used.

 The names of the letters in the Georgian alphabet are the formal, traditional names. The names in the IPA are the usual way to refer to them.

 The letters used to have the numerical values shown. Information about the Georgian alphabet from Konstantin Gugeshashvili

Sample text in Georgian

3 Universidad de Puerto Rico/Recinto de Río Piedras Facultad de Humanidades/Departamento de Historia HIST 4176- Historia Cultural de Rusia. Dra. Nélida Muñoz de Frontera

Transliteration Qvela adamiani ibadeba tʻavisupʻali da tʻanascori tavisi girsebiṫ ʻa da uplebebitʻ. Mat miničebuli akʻvtʻ goneba da sindisi da ertʻmanetʻis mimartʻ unda ikʻcʻeodnen żmobis suliskvetʻebitʻ.

Hear a recording of this text by George Keretchashvili

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. ( 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) Referencia: “Georgian”, http://www.omniglot.com/writing/georgian.htm, 12 de febrero de 2010.

2) ARMENIA

Armenian alphabet

Origin

In the late 4th century AD, king of Armenia asked , one of the officials in his chancellery and a prominent scholar, to create a new alphabet for Armenian. Before then, Armenian had been written with '' scripts, which was deemed unsuitable for religious works by the Armenian Church. Mashtots travelled to Alexandria, where studied the principles of writing and came to the conclusion that the Greek alphabet was the best alphabet in use at that time because there was an almost one-to-one correspondence between sounds and letters. He used this model to come up with a new alphabet, which he presented to the king when he returned to Armenia in 405 AD.

4 Universidad de Puerto Rico/Recinto de Río Piedras Facultad de Humanidades/Departamento de Historia HIST 4176- Historia Cultural de Rusia. Dra. Nélida Muñoz de Frontera

The new alphabet was well-received and a new Armenian of the was published in 405 AD. Other literary works soon followed.

Notable features

 Type of writing system: alphabet

 Direction of writing: left to right in horizontal lines

 There are a few minor differences in the pronunciation of the letters between the two main dialects of Armenian: Western and Eastern.

 Most of the letters have numerical values.

Used to write

Armenian, an Indo-European language spoken in Armenia, Iran, Georgia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and many other countries by about 6 million people. The Armenian name for the is Hayeren. A significant number of Armenian root words owe their origin to or are similar to roots in Old Persian, revealing common Indo-European ancestry.

Eastern

5 Universidad de Puerto Rico/Recinto de Río Piedras Facultad de Humanidades/Departamento de Historia HIST 4176- Historia Cultural de Rusia. Dra. Nélida Muñoz de Frontera

Western Armenian alphabet

Sample text in Armenian

Transliteration Bolor mardik tsnvum azat havasar irentsʻ arzganapatkutʻyamb u iravunkʻnerov. Nrankʻ unen banakʻanutʻyun u khighch - mimyantsʻ petkʻ ē eghbayrabar veraberven.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) Referencia: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/armenian.htm, 12 de febrero de 2010

6 Universidad de Puerto Rico/Recinto de Río Piedras Facultad de Humanidades/Departamento de Historia HIST 4176- Historia Cultural de Rusia. Dra. Nélida Muñoz de Frontera

3) AZERBAIJAN

History and development

From the 19th century there were efforts by some intellectuals like to replace the and create a for Azeri. In 1922, a was created by Yeni türk əlifba komitəsi (New Committee; Јени түрк əлифба комитəси) in . In 1929, the Uniform Turkic Alphabet was introduced to replace the varieties of the Arabic alphabet in use at the time. In 1939, because Stalin wished to sever the ties between the Republic of Turkey and the Turkic peoples living within the , he decreed that only the Cyrillic alphabet be used. When the Soviet Union collapsed and Azerbaijan gained its independence, one of the first laws passed in the new Parliament was the adoption of a modified .

From 1918 until 1939

Aa, Bв, Cc, Çç, Dd, Ee, Əə, Ff, Gg, Ƣƣ, Hh, Ii, Ьь, Jj, Kk, Qq, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Ɵɵ, Pp, Rr, , Şş, Tt, Uu, Vv, Xx, Yy, Zz, Ƶƶ

From 1939 until 1958

Аа, Бб, Вв, Гг, Ғғ, Дд, Ее, Ёё, Əə, Жж, Зз, Ии, Йй, Кк, Ққ, Лл, Мм, Оо, Өө, Пп, Рр, Сс, Тт, Уу, Үү, Фф, Хх, Һh, Цц, Чч, Ҷҷ, Шш, Щщ, ъ, Ыы, ь, Ээ, Юю, Яя, ' (apostrophe)

7 Universidad de Puerto Rico/Recinto de Río Piedras Facultad de Humanidades/Departamento de Historia HIST 4176- Historia Cultural de Rusia. Dra. Nélida Muñoz de Frontera

From 1958 until 1991

Аа, Бб, Вв, Гг, Ғғ, Дд, Ee, Əə, Жж, Зз, Ии, Ыы, Јј, Кк, Ҝҝ, Лл, Мм, Нн, Оо, Өө, Пп, Рр, Сс, Тт, Уу, Үү, Фф, Хх, Һһ, Чч, Ҹҹ, Шш, ' (apostrophe)

From 1991 until 1992

Aa, Ää, Bb, Cc, Çç, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Ğğ, Hh, Xx, Iı, İi, Jj, Kk, Qq, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Öö, Pp, Rr, Ss, Şş, Tt, Uu, Üü, Vv, Yy, Zz

Since 1992

Aa, Bb, Cc, Çç, Dd, Ee, Əə, Ff, Gg, Ğğ, Hh, Xx, Iı, İi, Jj, Kk, Qq, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Öö, Pp, Rr, Ss, Şş, Tt, Uu, Üü, Vv, Yy, Zz

Referencia: “”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijani_alphabet, 12 de febrero de 2010.

4) TURQUÍA

8 Universidad de Puerto Rico/Recinto de Río Piedras Facultad de Humanidades/Departamento de Historia HIST 4176- Historia Cultural de Rusia. Dra. Nélida Muñoz de Frontera

Capital letters

A B C D F G H I İ J K L M N P R S U Ü V Y Z

Lower case letters

a b c ç d e f g ğ h ı i j k l m n o ö p r s ş t u ü v y z

Of these 29 letters, 8 are vowels (A, E, I, İ, O, Ö, U, Ü); the 21 others are consonants.

The letters Q, W, and of the Modern basic Latin alphabet do not occur in the Turkish alphabet.

Referencia: “Turkish alphabet” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_alphabet, 12 de febrero de 2010.

5) IRÁN (PERSIA)

Persian Alphabet

he has been written with a number of different scripts, including , Pahlavi, Aramaic, and Avestan. After the Islamic conquest of the Persian Sassanid

9 Universidad de Puerto Rico/Recinto de Río Piedras Facultad de Humanidades/Departamento de Historia HIST 4176- Historia Cultural de Rusia. Dra. Nélida Muñoz de Frontera

Empire in 642 CE, Arabic became the language of government, culture and especially religion.

Persian or Farsi, a member of the Iranian branch of Indo-European languages with about 58 million speakers in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The form of Persian spoken in Afghanistan is called Dari, while the form spoken in Tajikistan is known as Tajik and is written with the Cyrillic alphabet.

Under Mongolian and Turkish rulers, Persian was adopted as the language of government in Turkey, central Asia and India, where it was used for centuries, and until after 1900 in Kashmir.

Modern Persian, written in a version of the (28 letters) except letters marked RED, which are belong to the Persian version (32 letters), and full of words of Arabic origin, appeared during the 9th century.

Notable Features

. Words are written from right to left, numbers are written from left to right. . Short vowels are not written, which means the pronunciation and meaning of many words is determined by context. . Most letters change form depending on whether they appear at the beginning, middle or end of a word, or on their own. . Arabic loan words are written with their original spelling, though they are often pronounced quite differently in Persian.

Alphabet:

10 Universidad de Puerto Rico/Recinto de Río Piedras Facultad de Humanidades/Departamento de Historia HIST 4176- Historia Cultural de Rusia. Dra. Nélida Muñoz de Frontera

Numerals:

11