Kartvelian/Georgian Studies

Сегодня Всехсвятский храм возле метро Сокол является одним из самых доходных в Москве. При это о том, что в XVIII-XIX вв. он служил усыпальницей грузинской аристократии, ныне почти не помнят из-за неоднократных изменений его интерьера и произошедшего в 1981-м сноса прилегающего погоста. Анализ сохранившихся описаний и характеристики нескольких уцелевших надгробий позволяют составить – пускай дискретное – представление о том, каким был облик некрополя внутри храма и возле его стен. Данные же из метрических записей дают дополнительную информацию о социальном составе погребённых, а систематизация эпитафий позволяет понять, каким было их функциональное предназначение.
Nowadays the church of All Saints near subway station Sokol is one of if not the most profitable in Moscow. Due to the numerous changes of its interior and the demolition (partly removal) of the churchyard in 1981, the fact that this church located in XVIII-XIX centuries in the namesake village of Moscow county, had been also the necropolis for Georgian nobility, was deleted from the public memory. An analyze of archival descriptions and features of a very few remained tombstones enables to create – even discretely – the perception of how the cemetery looked like inside the church and around its walls. The data from the metric books of the parish provides us with an additional information about social accessory of the buried people, while the systematization of epitaphs shows its functional purpose.

REPRINT OF:  Sir O. Wardrop, English-Svanetian Dictionay, Journal of the Royal
Asiatic Society 1911, XVI, 589-634.

English-Svanetian Dictionary - The recent establishment of a fund in the University of Oxford for the encouragement of the study of the Georgian family of languages may in the course of time attract the attention of British philologists to the Western Caucasus, and an increasing stream of travelers will doubtless find their way thither seeking knowledge, health, sport, and scenery; it is for such visitors that the following vocabulary has been compiled.

The Book you can find on Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/English-Svanetian-Dictionary-Sir-Oliver-Wardrop/dp/9941961646/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1542703788&sr=8-1&keywords=english-svanetian+dictionary

Grigol Orbeliani is a very interesting and controversial figure of 19th century Georgian literature. The poet’s public work in the 19th century deserved conflicting assessments. To this day, there is controversy over Orbeliani’s political views. Some scholars do not forgive Grigol Orbeliani for the words “the golden chain is better than freedom!”, which they consider to be an expression of the poet’s political beliefs. The opposite view is developed around this issue by Prof. Lado Minashvili, who in his work “Ilia Chavchavadze’s Relation to Grigol Orbeliani” points out that the words from the poem “Answer to Children”–“Golden Chain is better than freedom”–has an ironic subtext and does not express Grigol Orbeliani’s beliefs. Despite the convincing argument of the researcher, the old view still prevails in modern literary circles (today this view is repeated by R. Chkheidze, A. Nikoleishvili, S. Sigua, L. Gigineishvili, etc.). In such a situation, we think it is necessary to take into account the first printed text of the poem–“Answer to the Unworthy Children”–“Tsiskari”, 1874, N 7-8), which reveals a slight variation with the main text and which assures us that Grigol Orbeliani’s words undoubtedly have an ironic connotation.

For EFL speakers, prosodic features such as intonation and word stress contribute greatly to the comprehensibility of an utterance (Derwing & Rossiter, 2003; Zielinski, 2008). Yet, many of the problems learners face in being understood may be due to L1-L2 transfer of these prosodic features (Flege, 1984). While some phonological research has been done on Georgian speakers speaking in Georgian (Alkhazishvili, 1959; Skopeteas, Féry, & Asatiani, 2008), little is known about L1-L2 phonological transfer in Georgian EFL learners' utterances in English. Additionally, no known study has used Praat training with Georgian EFL speakers to increase the awareness of intonation and word stress in English and improve the intelligibility of their utterance. This study investigated L1-L2 transfer in word stress and intonation of speech collected during a freespeaking activity from several Georgian EFL learner participants. Based on examples in the recordings, five problematic words and five problematic phrases in English were identified as target forms for a three-week pronunciation training that focused on intonation and word stress with Praat with the same six participants. Recordings before and after pronunciation training will be collected and analyzed to investigate modifications made by the participants. Results indicate a statistically significant improvement in word stress, however a non-significant change in intonation. While certain features of L1-L2 transfer in word stress and intonation are present in the data, they do not match exactly the tendency of Georgian speakers. Implications are made for pronunciation teachers of Georgian learners as well as teachers with learners of other languages that face similar prosodic differences.

Two Greek inscriptions found at Mc'xet'a in Georgia shed light on a woman named Beurazouria, married to a chief painter, Aurēlios Acholis or Acholios, contemporary of his colleague Achilles. These characters from the Ancient Iberian kingdom are known only by epigraphy which provides significant amount of information about the craftsmen of Caucasian Iberia, religious beliefs and onomastics. This paper delivers a revised reading with new interpretations on these two epigraphic documents. Updated on December 28, 2022.

Gürcüler ve Türkler çok uzun bir geçmişin birlikte yaşanmışlığıyla derin ilişkileri
bulunan iki millet olup dilleri bu tarihî bağın izlerini taşır. Her lisanda, standart dilin
söz varlığının temel kaynağı sözlüklerdir. Bu çalışmada standart Gürcüceye
Türkçeden geçmiş sözcükleri tespit etmek için 2010 yılında Türk Dil Kurumu tarafından
yayınlanan İbrahim Arısoy’un hazırladığı “Gürcüce-Türkçe Sözlük” taranmış,
tespit edilen Türkçe, Farsça ve Arapça kökenli toplam 519 sözcük tematik tasnife
tabi tutulmuştur. Sözlükte Türkçeden Gürcüceye geçen sözcük sayısı 137,
Farsça kökenli sözcük sayısı 148, Arapça kökenli sözcük sayısı 234 olup bu sözcükler
Türkiye Türkçesinde günümüzde de benzer veya farklı anlamlarla kullanılmaktadır.
Buna göre Gürcüceye Türkiye Türkçesi ve diğer Türk lehçeleri üzerinden
geçen Arapça ve Farsça kökenli sözcük sayısı Türkçe kökenli sözcük sayısından
daha fazladır. Çalışmada Türkçe üzerinden Gürcüceye geçen Türkçe, Farsça ve
Arapça sözcüklerle Türkçe-Gürcüce arasındaki dil etkileşimi ve özellikleri
üzerinde de durulmuştur.

The key importance of the location of the Caucasus was picturesquely stated already by Pliny the Elder (Plinius Magnus), in the first century, namely that the Caucasian Gates divides the world in two parts (NH, VI, XII, 30). Transcaucasia, as it was located in the edge of the civilized and barbarian worlds, was an area of influences of these two opposite models of the historical development, but the factor of the Greater Caucasus Mountain Range determined its destination to be the outpost of the highly developed Eurasian periphery against Central Eurasia, characterized by a slow rate of development, or in other words, to be the stronghold of the civilized South and West against the barbarian North and East.

Funde, Eigennamen und Schriftzeichen beweisen Roms lange Zugehörigkeit zur etruskischen Kultur. Die historisch faßbaren Anfänge des Etruskertums in Italien fallen mit der mythischen  Gründungzeit Roms (datiert auf 753 v. Chr.) zusammen. Die Sage berichtet vom korinthisch-etruskischen Ursprung der letzten römische Könige und von Einfällen der Etrusker unter dem König von Clusium Lars Porsenna nach dem Sturz der Tarquinier.  Die zwei römischen Gründungsmythen, die Äneas- und die Romulus-Sage, bezeugen die enge Verbindung Roms mit den etruskischen Nachbarn. Von den sieben sagenhaften Königen Roms, von Romulus bis Tarquinius Superbus, waren vier etruskischer Herkunft. Romulus ist der mythische Ahnherr der *Ruma, eines aus lat. Roma erschlossenen Geschlechternamens. Die erschlossene etruskische Form von Romulus lautet *Rumle. Von ihm leiten sich auch die Gentilizien Romulius bzw. Romilius ab. Auf die Romulii oder Romilii ist auch die erste der  sechzehn ältesten römischen Landtribus, die Romulia zurückzuführen. Remus gilt als der Ahnherr der Remmii, eines Geschlechts, das es wohl im ältesten Rom gegeben haben muß. Dem Gentilnamen liegt der etruskische Name  Rem-ne oder Rem-ni zugrunde. Von diesem Gentilizium leiten sich in und um Rom die Toponyme Rem-ona und Rem-oria her. Tyrrhener  und Römer wurden von den Griechen häufig synonym benutzt: Tyrrhenoì  è Rhomaîoi („Tyrrhener oder Römer“), ebenso wie Tyrrhenía è Italía. Einige Sprachelemente seien zusätzlich genannt: Im Etruskischen lauten die Namensbezeichnungen für Rom Ruma, für Römer Rumach, für Troja Truia, für Trojaner Truial. In der Frühzeit herrschte ein Priesterkönig (lauchme oder lochume, lat. lucumo) in jeder etruskischen Stadt, ein Titel, der möglicherweise auf die Heilskönige und Richter der nordostgeorgischen Bergstämme verweist, die häufig den Namen Luchumi trugen.

Das etruskische Erbe Roms gelangte erst Jahrhunderte später, während des Humanismus und in der Renaissance wieder zum Vorschein. Bei der Hinwendung zur Antike in der Rinascita spielte in der Toskana und in Latium, vor allem in Florenz und Viterbo, die Etruscheria, die Begeisterung für die Etrusker, eine besondere Rolle. Das Etruskertum diente als Modell gesellschaftlicher Erneuerung und fand Eingang in die kulturellen Programme der Renaissancefürsten, nicht zuletzt  der Medici. Der römische Baumeister Vitruv hatte  in seinem Augustus gewidmeten Werk De architectura  die tuskische Säulenordnung beschrieben. Diese Schrift regte die Renaissancearchitekten Andrea Palladio und Giorgio Vasari an. Der Palladianismus bildet zwei Jahrhunderte später eine der wichtigsten Stilrichtungen des Klassizismus. Durch die Lektüre von Palladio inspiriert, errichtete Thomas Jefferson sein Haus „Monticello“ mit toskanischem Portikus – die  erste toskanische Villa in der Neuen Welt.  Den Etruskern verdankt das  abendländischen Denken  schließlich  eine zentrale Kategorie – die Person.

The paper deals with Base/Reduplicant relationship in Kartvelian (South
Caucasian) echo-word constructions as a determining condition in their classification
with special reference to copying direction. Base/Reduplicant relationship is pivotal in
reduplicative processes because a resulting entity is built of the Base and the Reduplicant. Hence, two types of echo reduplication are identified: Type 1 - L > R (Base-initial)
and Type 2 – R > L (Reduplicant-initial). The data from the Kartvelian languages have
highlighted the necessity of subdivision of echo-pairs into different types. The classification pattern, adhered to in the present paper, may be applied to similar phenomena
cross-linguistically, provided that various types and/or sub-types occur in a language.

The article focuses on the inscription found during  the archaelogical excavations on Gracliani Hill,  Georgia, in 2015. The inscription is executed on the altar of a pagan temple. In the author’s view the signs on the alter represent the letters of the Kartuli (Georgian) Asomtavruli alphabet. The graphs are assumed to form the following sequence: z a d n š h x c gh w e. In  several places (four in number) a Georgian method of abbreviation (karagma) is used. The full form should be read as "zaden šehxecighwe" meaning "Zaden help him (her, them)". Zaden is one of the famous deities of pagan Kartli (Iberia).
Archaeologists date the temple to approximately the 1st millennium BC, while the Miami Laboratory provides the dates of XI-X centuries BC. The period of executing the inscription is irrelevant, because in many scholars’ views Asomtavruli alphabet originated in the pagan era.
The paper presents the results of my preliminary observations, which, in the future, may become  modified, made more exact and clarified.

International Kartvelological Congress I Problems and Prospects of Kartvelology was held on 11 - 13 November, 2015 in Tbilisi. The Congress was organized by the Georgian National Academy of Sciences, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University and the Georgian Patriarchate.
Among the participants were representative kartvelologists from France, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Romania, Japan, Israel, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Russia, Armenia, Russia, Chechnya, Ingushetia etc.
The International Kartvelological Congress was opened on 11 November in the Georgian National Academy of Sciences by welcome speech of Academician Roin Metreveli, the Vice-President of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences, the chairman of the organizing committee of the Congress.
After the plenary meeting the sessions continued in the sections. There were three sections: Section of Linguistics, Section of Georgian History and Religion and Section of Literature and Art.

In the article we discuss interrelations between images of the main characters of Amiraniani (Georgian folk epos) and Rustaveli’s Knight in the Panther’s Skin.
    Character of Amiraniani, named Amiran, fights against the evil forces, defeats all of them, takes his sweetheart living in the heavenly castle and brings her to his home; finally, because of his power, he loses his mind and becomes arrogant. His arrogance was so great that he dares to fight with the God and for this he was punished – God chained him to Caucasus Mountains.
    We regard that the myth about Amiran describes the fight between the Caucasian temples; in our opinion, Amiran was the cult of pagan temple where the main things were only love and only faith, rather than reasonable and logical thinking. We regard that, supposedly, in such temple the priority was given to actually blind faith to the oracles and the philosophy based on logic, close to the Hellenic one, was less appreciated. In our opinion, to this cult center, there should be opposed the temple where there was regarded that lack of logic and reason finally results in arrogance and leads individual to the way of ruin; we regard that this, second temple won the battle of the worldviews and that at one of the stages of the history, in some Caucasian region, the winner was such temple, where the basis of worldview was, logic-based philosophy, together with the faith.
    Supposedly, Amiran, fighting with the evil forces was very popular from the early period. Analysis of the legends shows that in the early epoch Amiran’s story had a happy end; while when the temple that relied on logical thinking and philosophy gained the dominating position, the continuations were added to these legends and the story would tell that arrogance brought Amiran to sad end; that he fought with the God and because of this he was punished and chained to the cliff. It seems, such end reflected also the history of the defeat temple that was based on the faith only and underlined the fact that lack of reason and logic results in punishment and no matter how great is individual’s love, without common sense, he/she cannot be happy. Amiran has taken his sweetheart but he could not live with her in happiness and was punished for his arrogance.
    The temple dominating in Caucasus, with the worldview based on logic, together with the faith, supposedly had close relationships with the Greek religious centers; in our opinion, it is assumable that the myth about the hero chained by the God to Caucasus Mountains for disobedience has achieved Greek religious centers of from Caucasian temples that had close relationships with the Greece and from there moved to the Greek literature and thus there was created the myth about Prometheus chained by Zeus to Caucasian Mountain.
    Tariel, the main character of the Knight in the Panther’s Skin, has great love to beautiful Nestan, who was spirited away by the evil forces and locked in the castle but due to parting from his sweetheart, Tariel lacked common sense and temperance and he came to the verge of death. He was able to free Nestan only after Avtandil, known for his wisdom became his friend and supporter. In our opinion, Rustaveli responds to Amirainiani; in his poem he showed the other way of the main character of the epos, showing that an individual full of love, can achieve great happiness, if, together with love, has some wisdom as well.
    Thus, we express our hypothesis that the myth about Prometheus chained to Caucasus Range has originated in Caucasus and reflected the confrontation of the worldviews that has taken place in Caucasus. In our opinion, Amiraniani has its influence on the Knight in the Panther’s Skin.
    The article provides discussion of the genesis of the characters of Amiraniani and the Knight in the Panther’s Skin.

This chapter addresses Megrelian, a Kartvelian (South Caucasian) language spoken by Megrelians, a subethnic group compactly residing in one of the western provinces of Georgia, Samegrelo. A language of informal communication, Megrelian has been subject to linguistic research both in Georgia and beyond for more than 200 years now. Backed by the existing literature on the language, most of which has been published in Georgian, this sketch provides an account of essential features of Megrelian phonology, grammar, and lexicon, including such typologically renowned properties of Megrelian as the elaborate system of preverbs and innovative and extremely specific case-marking alignment that not only features ergative stimuli of affective verbs, but can also license this case to adverbs as well. Furthermore, new insights are proposed for such domains of linguistic structure as the language's case system, grades of comparison, expression of spatial deixis by pronominal expressions, verbal aspect, and evidentiality; some of these statements are based on the data from the author's long-term fieldwork and are now being introduced to linguistic discourse.