Georgian language is one of the most ancient live languages of our planet, and its unique alphabet is also one of the most ancient — its creation is believed to date back to the 3rd century BC and King Pharnavaz I is named as its inventor! Frankly, linguists aren't in agreement on when the language took roots or who was the creator: some say it goes all the way back to the 6th century BC, some name 5th century of our era its starting point. I even encountered a daring theory that Georgian and Basque languages may be related — unproven, that is. Truly, it's a topic yet not fully researched, and the work goes on.
But one thing seems to be certain: Georgian script we see and use nowadays is like no other in the world (must be the reason it was granted UNESCO Intangible Heritage recognition and is protected as cultural heritage)! In fact, all three versions of it — Asomtavruli, Nuskhuri (evolution of Asomtavruli), and Mkhedruli (evolution of Nuskhuri) — are, but only the latter one stayed in day-to-day use. And Mkhedruli is the script we'll take a closer look at in this Episode.
Translated from Georgian, the word Mkhedruli means "cavalry" or "military", and comes from the word მხედარი (mkhedari), which means "horseman", "knight" or "warrior". That is because initially the script was used only for secular writing and administrative purposes. Since then it has undergone relatively few changes, except for some letters being added or excluded in 18-19 centuries (it did have 38 letters before, and now only 33).
Interestingly enough, Georgian alphabet doesn't have the letter or the sound "f" — at all. Not unlike Russian, by the way, that also didn't have that letter before, but then managed to get 2 versions of it, then lost one over time (which was somewhat of a discovery to me!). Or exactly just like Mongolian — another language that is quite alive and kicking without such a letter or sound.
What do you do when there's no sound "f" in your language? If it's Georgian, you replace it with the sound "p" making a word like ოფისი ("office") sound like "opisi", or the word ფიზიკა ("physics") into "pisika", or turning ფერარი ("Ferrari") into a "Perrari".
The lack of some letters is grossly overcompensated ☺ in Georgian by having others "represented" twice. For example, you know how different sounds the letter "p" in English and a similar sound ("п") in Russian, right? The English one is kind of soft, airy and the Russian one is pronounced strong, harder. In Georgian there are both types embodied by two different letters: "ფ" — for the "English"-like sound (you can see it appearing in the three words adopted by the Georgian language two paragraphs above), and "პ" — for the "Russian" analog.
Same is true for the sound [ t ]: "თ" — softer type, pronounced with aspiration on the English manner, "ტ" — harder type, pronounced the way you do it, say, in Russian.
The Georgian script also has two letters for the following sounds:
- "ch": "ჩ" — let's call it "on the Russian manner" sound; "ჭ" — its even sharper version;
- "kh": "ხ" — "on the Russian manner" sound; "ჰ" — a softer version, German-like;
- "ts" (like in Italian "pizza"): "ც" — "on the Russian manner" sound; "წ" — its even sharper version;
- "g": "გ" — like the sound [g] in the word "good"; "ღ" — like the Ukrainian "г" sound.
Also, Georgian script has 3 letters for (and 3 different ways to pronounce) the sound "k":
The 3 "k"s sound pretty similar when you hear them in the speech and, thus, pose quite a challenge for the learners — not only in identifying them, but also in producing. Especially the last one represented by this curious symbol ყ, that in some cases sounds almost the same as the Arabic letter "ﻕ" (qaf).
That letter — ყ — is the hardest one in the Georgian alphabet to master. It produces close to a clicking sound, something between sounds [g], [k], [kh] as if pronounced all together. It takes practice, but nothing is impossible, so do not despair.
There is even a saying in Georgian made of three words which are riddled with the challenging "throaty" letter ყ, instantly showing a foreigner from a native by their ability to pronounce them correctly. It goes like this: ბაყაყი წყალში ყიყინებს [ buh-ყa-ყee ts-ყal-she ყee-ყee-nebs ] — "The frog is croaking in the water".
Yes, some consonant Georgian sounds will take you time and practice to get comfortable with (whether you are an English speaker or a Russian speaker, mind you), but at least a skill to recognize them in a text and read them won't take too long as you can easily create associations between the "image", or symbol, of Georgian letters and their sounds.
For example:
- I saw somewhere a description for this letter — რ — as having "a very perrrrrky tail", and since then I cannot forget what this letter is: "r";
- This one — ლ — reminds me a lily-of-the-valley by its shape, hence, it is the letter "l"; and in that one — დ — I see a dandelion, hence, letter "d";
- Letter ჯ ("j") has a shape of a cross and the word "cross" in Georgian starts with it: ჯვარი ("jvari") — logical and helpful!
And so on. You can create your own associations that suit you and start reading Georgian, even clumsily, in no time! It's a fun activity and an unusual exercise for your brain.
Talking about that, Georgian is a challenging language, and your brain can drag you into the mind games, if you're not careful, and dissuade you from following through with learning it, force you give in to such a sweet temptation to complain about how "strange" or hard it is rather than persist through the new and different and search for solutions.
Let's talk about that in our next Episode and simplify the task. Curious how? Read on!
დროებით! (Droebit!) Until we meet again!
"Gრრრeat article! ლove it!"
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