Whatever led you to the welcoming arms of the Georgian language, be it curiosity, music, love, insatiable desire for knowledge or a linguistic challenge, you'll soon notice how everywhere on the internet Georgian is labeled difficult and presented as "the hardest language to learn". I want to dilute that screaming ocean of "It will drive you mad!" warnings and comments with this article on one of the most important things in learning a language that guarantees success like no other! Here we go.
Although it's true that the language comes with a set of "trials" (I mean, which one doesn't?) like its unique sounds and script, 7 cases for nouns, postpositions and unfamiliar ways of using verbs and forming tenses, to name a few, those are not obstacles designed to impede a learner from even trying to "taste" Georgian speech for themselves, but the pecularities of a foreign language integrated in it over thousands of years due to its history and evolution — they are what makes Georgian appealing and distinct!
So instead of giving up to the "upcoming doom" that you are about to fail at "the most difficult language" when you haven't even started yet, I offer to search for sources that present solutions, not just highlight hardships and imply as if everything that differs a language (not just Georgian, but Georgian in this case) from English is "insane", leaving you discouraged, with a feeling "Seems, I won't be able to handle this".
So let me give you some pointers.
1. Verbs
Georgian is an agglutinative language. You must remember this "sticky" term and what it implies from when we Langventured into Mongolian and then Turkish (in more detail). In short, those are the languages where words (especially verbs) are "glued" out of prefixes and/or suffixes that are attached to a verb root forming one single word to say something that in English takes a phrase of even a whole sentence, like "He called me".
This makes it quite "uncomfortable" for a speaker of a non-agglutinative language, because they will have to develop a brand-new habit, new way of building sentences they have never used before. But it is hardly a reason to get intimidated and quit.
Verbs in Georgian can have up to 14 different forms, which change based on tense, aspect, mood, and person. Thus, its verb system is marked "complex" by the experts in the field and in a way puts quite a drag on the otherwise exciting journey. Using the example I mentioned in the beginnng of this chapter, it looks something like this:
- დარეკვა (darekva) — "to call";
- ვურეკავ (vurek'av) — "I call";
- დამირეკე (damirek'e) — "call me";
- დამირეკა (damirek'a) — "he called me";
- მირეკავს (mirek'avs) — "he calls me".
See how the English versions of given phrases use 2 o 3 words to form the message and the Georgian ones "glue" specific prefixes and suffixes into one word to say the same? That is agglutination for you in action. Which is easier to reproduce if you don't spring it all on yourself at once but take it gradually, step by step.
There are keys to simplifying this challenge for the Georgian language, and I believe they are described the best in this article that I gladly recommend as the author shares my vision for language learning proposing simple and efficient solutions. Go ahead, it's worth reading!
2. Consonant clusters
With only 5 vowel sounds, the Georgian language tends to have words with several consonants following one after another. This "feature" doesn't occur only in Georgian, but in other languages, too, like Russian "Здравствуйте" (zdrav-stvooy-teh), "Hello", or Czech "čtvrt" (ch'tvrt), "quater".
But it's the Georgian words that made it to the Guinness book exactly because of such a "tough cookie" peculiarity. I'm talking, of course, about the infamous word გვფრცქვნი (gvpr'ts'kvni) consisting of only one syllable, with 8 consonant letters in a row, and translated as "you are peeling us" (and having read the previous chapter, you now know why this one Georgian word says the same as 5 English ones).
This isn't a singular case. Besides some outdated words, like ვეფხვთმბრდღვნელი (vef'kh'vtmbrdgvneli), or "the one who kills tigers", with 11 consonants (!) strung together, there are many words in Georgian in daily use that present a similar "consonant trial". Let's see examples:
- ვარსკვლავები (varsk'vlavebi) — "stars";
- მცვრნელი (mts'vrtneli) — "coach";
- გვრცხვენია (gvr'ts'kh'venia) — "we are ashamed";
- ბრძოლა (brdzola) — "battle", etc.
So how better to handle that? My personal advice is threefold:
- Start with believing that you actually can say that. Thinking otherwise impedes your success.
- Remember: Georgian sounds that look in English transcription as if they carry two, like "ts" and "kh", are actually one sound, so don't overcomplicate yourself by trying to pronounce Georgian words on the English manner. Better put that time in mastering Georgian sounds.
- The key with words like these is not in the clear-cut pronunciation of every single consonant but in the ability of joining them together seemlessly, melodically even, and that sometimes requires little vowel-y toned, hushed "middle" sounds. For example, the word "coach" you've just saw above such a trick will turn into: mits'vritneli.
I hope that will add immensely to your progress and ease your worries. But the most important key to "winning" at Georgian that I mentioned in the beginning of this Episode is this:
3. Attitude
Taking the position "What a crazy language!" may be tempting. But you can either bash the language for its difficulty or make fast progress in it — you can't do both. So it is up to you to make the choice which one is more important. Focusing on the hard parts of the language, you yourself make the journey harder than it could be by setting a framework for your mind where it only sees overwhelm and pain. Which your mind will always avoid and sabotage any attempt of retaining new information.
Languages (and many other things in life, really) are that — mind games. You can give in to the lazy mind's plea to stop going into new directions like, say, languages (it is energy-consuming, don't you know?!) fed by "proof" that it's not something worthy or something you can actually do. And this is when your choice kicks in: to join it, or to remind yourself that you can and go on. Without expectations. Without giving up.
Your attitude matters. I know it takes an additional effort to remember it and remind yourself about it. But it also guarantees you'll reach the destination, and with more pleasure at that.
And Georgian is a great language to try this on as it never ceases to amaze. Exploring its depths is a daring and rewarding journey for anyone interested in discovering the beauty and intricacies of this remarkable language.
კარგად! (Kuh-r-gud!) All the best!
"Thank you for restoring my confidence! Like!"
Discover more about Georgian and other languages at langventure.mystrikingly.com!
