SOME USEFUL PHRASES IN GEORGIAN FIVE REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD GEORGIAN გამარჯობა. მე მქვია ჯონ. LEARN MORE ABOUT GEORGIAN [gɑmɑrʤɔbɑ. me mkʰviˈa ʤɔn.] AND THEIR LANGUAGE /Gamarjoba. Me mk’via Jon./ 1. Georgian is a South Caucasian language Hi. My name is John. spoken by about 4.1 million people and can რა გქვიათ? be found mainly in Georgia, with significant [rɑ gkʰviˈɑtʰ?] populations also in Russia and Turkey. /Ra gk’viath?/ What is your name? 2. A member of the Kartvelian language group, Georgian shares many structural similarities როგორა ხარ? კარგად ვარ. to the other three Kartvelian languages: Svan, [rɔgɔrɑ χɑr. kɑrgɑd vɑr.] Mingrelian, and Laz. /Rogora khar. Kargad var./ How are you doing? I’m fine. 3. Georgia is home to the deepest known cave in the world. The Krugera Cave, also known საიდან ხართ? მე ვარ ინდიანა. as the Voronya Cave, is 8.3 miles long and [ˈsɑɪdɑn χɑrtʰ? mɛ vɑr ˌindiˈɑnɑ.] 7,208 feet deep. /Saidan kharth? Me var Indiana./ Where are you from? I’m from Indiana. 4. Staple Georgian crops include citrus, grapes, არ მესმის. tea, and hazelnuts. And major exports are [ɑr mɛsmis.] scrap metal (steel), machinery, tea, hazelnuts, /Ar mesmis./ and livestock. I don’t understand. 5. Georgia is renowned for its wine-making, and ტუალეტი სად არის? is one of the oldest wine producing regions [ˈtuɑltɛi sɑd ɑˈris?] in the world. In fact, some of the oldest wine /Tualeti sad aris?/ jug remains ever discovered were found in Where is the bathroom? Georgian territory. Every year Georgian გმადლობთ. families celebrate the grape harvest with a [gmɑdlobtʰ.] traditional festival called Rtveli. /Gmadlobth./ Thank you. ABOUT US მე შენ მიყვარხარ. The Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region (CeLCAR) at Indiana University develops materials for [mɛ ʃɛn miqvɑrχɑr.] learning and teaching a wide variety of Central Asian /Me shen miqvarkhar./ languages. I love you. For more information, go to celcar.indiana.edu. ნახვამდის. [nɑχvɑmdis.] 238 Eigenmann Hall, 1900 East 10th Street, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47406 /Nakhvamdis./ Phone: (812) 856-1230 Good bye. E-mail : [email protected] Center for Languages of the Website: https://celcar.indiana.edu Central Asian Region (CeLCAR) WHO ARE THE GEORGIAN AND language, where one root word has a series of alphabet. In the 13th century, Georgian adopted affixes attached to indicate discrete grammatical the Mkhedruli (მხედრული) alphabet. While WHERE DO THEY LIVE? functions. Georgian is also well known for some religious documents are still written in Georgians belong to its flexible word order and can use SVO (like Asomtavruli or a Caucasian ethnic English) or SOV (like Indo-European languages). Nuskhuri, the group native to Georgians can move the word order around to over-whelming Georgia (Sak’art’velo indicate meanings and add emphasis. majority in Georgian), a of Modern But perhaps the most unique trait of the Georgian is mountainous Georgian language is its country in the written using extensive use of consonants. Mkhedruli. Caucasus region of The Georgian language Eurasia situated on the uses 58 consonant sounds Black Sea, sharing land borders with Russia to from the International WHAT IS GEORGIAN CULTURE LIKE? the North, and Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan Phonetic Alphabet. Georgians enjoy a very traditional family to the south. Furthermore, Georgian oriented society, where men are typically heads The Georgian population is estimated to be about uses complex consonant of the household and women fill the roles of care 7 million with approximately 4.1 million living clusters that can include takers and keepers of the home. Urban Georgian in Georgia, significant populations in Russia (1 up to six consonants in a households normally consist of nuclear families, million) and Turkey (1 million), and smaller, but row! Additionally, Georgian and maybe a set of grandparents, but rural still significant populations throughout Europe features harmonic clusters, Georgian households tend to consist of the larger (Armenia, Belarus, France, Greece, Italy, Latvia, where two consonant extended family members. Turkey, Ukraine), Central Asia (Azerbaijan and phonemes will inherit the Georgians are an overwhelmingly Christian Kazakhstan), the Middle East (Iran, Israel), same phonological features, society, being the third country in the world and even some small diaspora groups in North such as voice, aspiration, or ejection. to adopt Christianity, with 65% of Georgians and South America (Canada, the United States, Finally, while linguists agree that Georgian does claiming to be Orthodox, 10% Russian Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico). use stress, they disagree one whether it occurs Orthodox, and 8% Armenian Apostolic (8%). WHAT KIND OF LANGUAGE IS GEORGIAN? at word level, or just the phrasal level. However, Food is so important in Georgian culture that linguists do agree that Georgia is a syllable- they have a traditional feast, called a supra, filled Georgian is a Kartvelian language, also referred to timed language, where every syllable receives with traditional Georgian dishes, lots of wine, as a South Caucasian language. Other Kartvelian approximately the same amount of duration and even an official toastmaster,tomada , who languages include Svan, Mingrelian, and Laz. and prominence, unlike stress-timed languages leads the many toasts of the meal. Guests at the However, Georgian is the most widely spoken (like English) that reduce the vowel quality and supra can enjoy some of the many distinctly Kartvelian language duration of unstressed syllables. Georgian meat and vegetable dishes flavored with and the only one with Note: Some scholars argue that Mingrelian and Laz are dialects herbs and spices, a rich literary history of Georgia rather than independent languages. such as y khachapuri dating back to 430 (cheese baked in AD. WHAT ALPHABET DO THE GEORGIAN USE? pastry), pkhali Similar to other (pureed spinach, languages spoken The earliest discovered Georgian writing is thought to have been written around 430 AD in garlic, and walnuts), throughout the lobio (bean dish), Caucus regions, Asomtavruli (ႠႱႭႫႧႠႥႰႳႺႠ), a modified Greek alphabet, which was used until 900 AD and khinkali (meat Georgian is an filled dumpling). agglutinative when the language shifted towards the Nuskhuri