Georgian letters in words. Alphabet

The Georgian language has a unique alphabetic system, one of the few that is used by thousands of different languages ​​in the world.

Unlike the language, which, as noted above, has not changed very much over 16 centuries, the Georgian alphabet, on the contrary, has gone through several stages in its development. There are three stages in total: from the 5th to the 9th century, from the 9th to the 11th century and from the 11th century to the present. The corresponding types of writing are called (see figure): მრგვლოვანი [mrglovani] (rounded) or ასომთავრული [asomtavruli/mtavruli] (capital); ნუსხური [nuskhuri] (lowercase); მხედრული [mkhedruli] or საერო [saero] (civil/military, secular). At first glance, many of the letters of all three alphabets, which denote the same sounds, are quite different from each other, but the gradual transformation of Asomtavruli into Nuskhuri, and the latter into Mkhedruli, is clearly visible from epigraphic and handwritten monuments. Cursive nuskhuri is easily perceived by the reader and is more economical; its introduction is associated with a wider spread of writing. Mkhedruli, with its light letters, is even better suited for quick writing, which contributed to its popularity - gradually all secular documents and books switched to mkhedruli writing, while nuskhuri continued to be used (and even then to a limited extent) only for church books. The stabilization of mkhedruli letters is associated with the beginning of Georgian printing (see above).

Versions of the Georgian alphabet: 1. Asomtavruli/mtavruli. 2. Nuskhuri. 3. Mkhedruli. 4. International transcription. 5. Numerical equivalent.

Creation of the Georgian alphabet historical tradition connects it with the name of King Farnavaz (3rd century BC), but no monuments of Georgian graphics of that time have reached us. The Georgian mosaic inscription from Palestine (dating from the 1st half of the 5th century) was considered the oldest example of Georgian epigraphy until the recent past. But the situation changed dramatically in the late 90s, after excavations carried out under the leadership of prof. L. Chilashvili in the village of Nekresi (eastern Georgia), 150 km from Tbilisi. Nekresi is known as the place where pagan and Zoroastrian sanctuaries were located before the adoption and spread of Christianity (for eastern Georgia this is 337). While exploring buildings of early Christian and pre-Christian times, archaeologists discovered fragments of stones with inscriptions in writing asomtavruli. Some of them have a Mazdaist character. Scientists suggest that the above-mentioned stones were taken from an abandoned (ancient) fire-worshipping cemetery (Zoroastrianism was widespread in Georgia, especially in eastern Georgia, and competed with Christianity there for a long time), and then used again as building material. The archaeological context allows us to confidently date the inscriptions, and therefore the origin of Georgian writing, to at least the 3rd century AD. e., and most likely an earlier period (I-II centuries AD). The hypothesis about the creation of Georgian writing (along with Armenian and Albanian) by Mesrop Mashtots at the beginning of the 5th century has finally lost the slightest credibility. However, this theory was already discarded by impartial scientists quite a long time ago as scientifically untenable. It is enough to mention that the Armenian historical tradition, which connects the creation of the ancient Georgian script with the name of Mesrop Mashtots, itself testifies that he did not speak either Georgian or Albanian, which excludes the possibility of him creating writing for these languages; in addition, according to the research of academician T. Gamkrelidze, the ancient Georgian alphabet is based on structural principles different from the ancient Armenian, which neutralizes the similarity of some graphemes of these two scripts. The nature of the finds from Nekresi also indicates the reason for the complete absence of pre-Christian literature - apparently, as many Georgian scientists assumed, it was largely pagan in nature and, along with epigraphic monuments, fell victim to the Christianization of Georgia, when everything pagan was subjected to merciless destruction.

The modern Georgian alphabet is based on a strict phonological principle: each phoneme corresponds to a single, strictly defined grapheme. Modern Georgian writing uses 33 letters. In the 19th century, during the spelling reform, those letters were removed from the alphabet for which, according to the reformers, there were no longer sound correspondences in the Georgian language. Eight letters were removed, of which five belonged to the ancient Georgian language, and three were borrowed later (it should be noted that the absence of some of the discarded graphemes significantly complicates the accurate transliteration in Georgian of many foreign names).

The Georgian alphabet is used mainly for writing Georgian-language, as well as Mingrelian (partially Laz) and Svan texts. Zan (which is divided into two main groups of dialects - Mingrelian and Laz) and Svan languages ​​also belong to the Kartvelian group and are very close to Georgian - they are all branches of a single proto-Kartvelian language. They are used by subnational groups of the Georgian people: Mingrelians and Svans in some regions of Western Georgia, Laz in Turkey (writing based on the Latin script is also often used to write Laz). The written language of Mingrelians and Svans is Georgian. In 1938-1954, the Georgian letter (with the introduction of additional characters) was also used for the Abkhaz and Ossetian languages.

In exceptional cases, non-Georgian writing is also used for the Georgian language. In particular, Judeo-Georgian, the language of Georgian Jews - essentially a dialect of Georgian with borrowings from Hebrew and Aramaic - is sometimes written in the Hebrew alphabet (50-55 thousand immigrants from Georgia live in Israel). However, the written use of Judeo-Georgian is extremely limited.

In the field of electronic communication, the practice of transliterating Georgian text into letters of the Latin alphabet is still quite widespread, especially among young people, who represent a significant segment of the consumer market for computer technology. There is also an officially recommended system of Romanization of the Georgian language. But due to the sharply increased ease of Georgianization of the personal computer and Internet applications, Georgian writing has taken a dominant position in the field of electronic applications.

One way or another, the possibility of translating the Georgian language into the Latin script is not considered by the Georgian public - Georgians perceive the Georgian alphabetic system as a unique national treasure and an integral part of national self-identification.

Additional information:

Literature and sources

Wikipedia: [English, Russian. and Georgians. version] // [Electronic resource]: , , .

1. Gamkrelidze, T. V. Alphabetic writing and ancient Georgian writing / T. V. Gamkrelidze. Tbilisi, 1989.

Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic: encyclopedia. reference // edited by I. V. Abashidze. Tbilisi, 1981.

Javakhishvili, I. Georgian writing, otherwise paleography: [in Georgian. lang.]: Sat. op. in 12 volumes. T. 9 / I. Javakhishvili. Tbilisi, 1996.

Chikobava, A. S. The first Georgian printed publications/ A. S. Chikobava, D. L. Vateishvili. Tbilisi, 1993.

Chilashvili, L. The most ancient Georgian inscriptions of Nekresi and questions of the history of Georgian writing: [in Georgian. language] / L. Chilashvili. Tbilisi, 2004.

www.itic.org.ge/udabno/anbani_e.htm

Grammarian H. Junker speaks of possible Greek influence on writing khutsuri and its continuity (independent of Armenian) from the Arsacid Pahlavi [strange, there is no similarity]. At the same time he sits mkhedruli more ancient (the letters are more similar to Aramaic), or, conversely, the italic variety khutsuri. (Illustration on the left taken from The Georgian Alphabet)

[In short, nothing here is clear yet, although Georgian scientists still managed to strictly prove that mkhedruli originated from the very first Georgian letter asomtavruli(khutsuri is his option), and I agree with them in advance].

In Armenia it is believed that the Georgian alphabet [which?] also developed Saint Mesrop. At first glance, it sounds very plausible. But friendly Georgians do not admit this. And they may be right. What if it was the Georgian letter that formed the basis of the Armenian one? After all, the Slavs are still arguing about which alphabet Saints Cyril and Methodius invented - Cyrillic or Glagolitic?

[My opinion - first, on the basis of Greek and Aramaic, someone invented the Glagolitic alphabet as a Christian cryptography, and the Cyrillic alphabet was invented by Slavic enlighteners, taking as a basis the composition of the letters of this letter, adding some, partly unnecessary, Greek letters - tettu, psi, xi, upsilon-izhitsu]. By the way, some Glagolitic signs resemble Georgian ones - and specifically from Mkhedruli ( a, b, g, d, l...).]

From the 6th century BC. Georgia was a colony Ionian Greeks[only?]: its western region was called Colchis, eastern - Iberia. The first Greek city-states-colonies - Phase (Poti at the mouth of the Rioni River) and Dioscuriad (Sukhumi) [do these two colonies have two different alphabets?]. Many Greek myths - primarily about Promethea- similar to Abkhazian ones. Who borrowed it from whom? Herodotus mentions a colony of Egyptians who came to Colchis long before the Greeks occupied the shores of the Black Sea. And the Colchians themselves are described as dark-skinned and curly-haired, with the Egyptian custom of circumcision, and even in Soviet era Ethiopian-Abkhazians lived in Abkhazia. There are different versions: warriors of the pharaoh Thutmose, who went on campaigns to the north; Roman or Ottoman slaves... [I suggest another: Libyan warriors who arrived here with the Aegeans in the 13th century BC. after their defeat Ramses("peoples of the sea" - Garamantes)].

In the VI-II centuries BC. e. existed on the territory of Colchis Colchis kingdom, and subsequently it was part of various Georgian states. At the end of the 6th - first half of the 5th centuries BC. e. The Colchis kingdom was dependent on [and Pahlavi influence on the alphabet?]. At the end of the 4th century BC. e. ruler of the Colchis kingdom Coogee headed (together with the Kartlian king Farnavaz) movement for the creation of a Georgian state. At the end of the 2nd century BC. e. The Colchis kingdom was subjugated Kingdom of Pontus[at this time - the second borrowed alphabet?], and in the 1st century BC. e. - [hence - Latin italics of Greek letters?]. At the turn of the 1st-2nd centuries AD. e. on the site of the collapsed Colchis kingdom, north of the mouth of the Chorokhi River, arose Laz kingdom, who gradually managed to subjugate the population of Northern Colchis. (From Wikipedia)

greenarine in the comments pigh -a raised the topic of the Georgian alphabet and its supposed invention by Mashtots. I answered, now I’m answering in more detail.

In short, there is a chronicle “The Life of Mashtots” authored by Koryun. It sets out the legendary version of the creation of the Armenian, Georgian and Albanian alphabets. The Georgian alphabet according to it was created by Mashtots and a certain Georgian translator. It is valuable because Koryun was a student of Mesrop Mashtots and his contemporary. This part of the chronicle in Russian translation can be read here: http://www.vehi.net/istoriya/armenia/korun/koriun16-29.html. However, in reality, Mashtots’ goal was not the spread of, say, the alphabet, but the spread of Christianity, which was very weak in the Caucasus at that time - in Armenia his goal was also public education (he opened dozens of schools) - in Iveria and Aluanka most likely - the spread of the Armenian branch Christianity, which was generally successful. The Georgian Church abandoned the Armenian branch of Christianity in the late 6th and early 7th centuries and switched to the Byzantine branch. In order not to appear biased, the Armenian Church also had a Byzantine-Georgian Orthodox orientation for some time, a couple of centuries later. This can be considered indirect evidence of Mashtots’ activities in the Caucasus (and the connections of the Aluan church with the Armenian one are known - in the 19th century, the remains of the Udi church completely merged with the Armenian one).

As for the Georgian alphabet, it went through three stages of evolution. It seems to me that the first alphabet did not really suit him, and the graphics in the first one were very similar to the Armenian one: (see columns 2 and 3 - Mrglovani (Asomtavruli) and Khutsuri (Nuskhuri). In the fourth column - the modern Georgian alphabet.

The first Georgian chronicle is “The Martyrdom of Shushanik”, 507, under the authorship of Yakov Tsurtaveli. That is, later than the supposed invention of the alphabet according to Koryun (420-430). The Armenian alphabet differs from the Georgian alphabet in one more way: the order of the letters is different relative to the Greek: in Armenian there are constant inclusions of letters that have no analogues in Greek, and in Georgian the Greek set comes first, and then relatively unique letters. It can be assumed that Mashtots and his Georgian comrades did not want such a great similarity between the Georgian and Armenian alphabet. Or it is possible, like Thomas Gamkrelidze, that the source of Georgian was Greek.

To summarize:

• If there was some kind of ancient Georgian alphabet, then not a single entry on it has survived in any form


• The Armenian version is more confirmed by sources, it is also considered by foreign scientists (David Dieringer, a researcher of alphabets, wrote about this)


• For Georgians, this topic is very sensitive, so you shouldn’t touch on it. I don’t understand when Armenians like to raise this topic, although they know the attitude of Georgians towards it


• The legend about the invention of the Georgian alphabet by Parnavaz is later and was stated not by contemporaries of that period, but 1500 years later


• The Georgian alphabet is the result of evolution, and if Asomtavruli was invented with the help of Mashtots, then today’s secular alphabet belongs more likely to the era of the 11-12 centuries. and is the result of the flourishing of the Georgian state

P.S. As I found out, inscriptions earlier than Tsurtaveli’s manuscript have been discovered. By the 70s. the earliest was considered to be an inscription from Bolnisi Zion (493/4), and later an inscription was discovered from a Georgian monastery in Palestine, dated 433 AD.

D. Dieringer. Alphabet / I.M.Dyakonov. - M.: Foreign Literature, 1963. - P. 380-383.

Lenore A. Grenoble. Language policy in the Soviet Union. Springer, 2003. - ISBN 1-4020-1298-5. - P. 116: " The creation of the Georgian alphabet is generally attributed to Mesrop, who is also credited with the creation of the Armenian alphabet».

Rayfield D. The Literature of Georgia: A History (Caucasus World). Routledge Curzon, 2000. - ISBN 0-7007-1163-5. - P. 19: " The Georgian alphabet seems unlikely to have a pre-Christian origin, for the major archaeological monument of the first century 4IX the bilingual Armazi gravestone commemorating Serafua, daughter of the Georgian viceroy of Mtskheta, is inscribed in Greek and Aramaic only. It has been believed, and not only in Armenia, that all the Caucasian alphabets - Armenian, Georgian and Caucaso-AIbanian - were invented in the fourth century by the Armenian scholar Mesrop Mashtots.<…>The Georgian chronicles The Life of Kanli - assert that a Georgian script was invented two centuries before Christ, an assertion unsupported by archaeology. There is a possibility that the Georgians, like many minor nations of the area, wrote in a foreign language - Persian, Aramaic, or Greek - and translated back as they read».

Avedis K.Sanjian.  The World's Writing Systems.  Oxford University Press, 1996- P.356.

According to Koriun 1964: 37, 40-41, Mesrop also invented scripts for Georgian and Caucasian Albanian, but this claim is not confirmed by non-Armenian sources.

Catholic Encyclopedia. Mesrob: " But his activity was not limited to Eastern Armenia. Provided with letters from Isaac he went to Constantinople and obtained from the Emperor Theodosius the Younger permission to preach and teach in his Armenian possessions. He evangelized successively the Georgians, Albanians, and Aghouanghks, adapting his alphabet to their languages, and, wherever he preached the Gospel, he built schools and appointed teachers and priests to continue his work. Having returned to Eastern Armenia to report on his missions to the patriarch, his first thought was to provide a religious literature for his countrymen».

Britannica. Alphabet: " The Aramaic alphabet was probably also the prototype of the Brāhmī script of India, a script that became the parent of nearly all Indian writings. Derived from the Aramaic alphabet, it came into being in northwest India. The Armenian and Georgian alphabets, created by St. Mesrob (Mashtots) in the early 5th century ad, were also based on the Aramaic alphabet».

Glen Warren Bowersock, Peter Robert Lamont Brown, Oleg Grabar. Late antiquity: a guide to the postclassical world. Harvard University Press, 1999. - ISBN 0-674-51173-5. - P. 289: James R. Russell. Alphabets. " Mastoc" was a charismatic visionary who accomplished his task at a time when Armenia stood in danger of losing both its national identity, through partition, and its newly acquired Christian faith, through Sassanian pressure and reversion to paganism. By preaching in Armenian, he was able to undermine and co-opt the discourse founded in native tradition, and to create a counterweight against both Byzantine and Syriac cultural hegemony in the church. Mastoc" also created the Georgian and Caucasian-Albanian alphabets, based on the Armenian model».

George L. Campbell. Compendium of the World's Languages. - Routledge; New edition edition (May 14, 1998) - ISBN 0-415-16049-9. - P. 183: “ Old Georgian was written in the xucuri character, traditionally invented by Mesrop Mashtots, to whom the Armenians owe their script. In the eleventh century the ecclesiastical xucuri was replaced by the character known as the mxedruli "civil", which is in use today. Georgian is the only Caucasian language to have developed its own script».

Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature. Merriam-Webster, 1995. - ISBN 0-87779-042-6 - P. 756. Article “Mesrob”: “ A collection of biblical commentaries, translations of patristic works, and liturgical prayers and hymns is credited to Mesrob, corroborating his reputation for having laid the foundation of a national Armenian liturgy. He is also credited with contributing to the origin of the Georgian alphabet».

“History of the East”, TRANSCAUCASUS IN THE IV-XI centuries - Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences: “ The Christianization of the Transcaucasian countries also had important consequences for the development of local culture. At the turn of the IV-V centuries. Armenian writing appeared, created by Mesrop Mashtots. Not without his help, national alphabets were invented in Georgia and Albania».

Peter R. Ackroyd, C. F. Evans, Geoffrey William Hugo Lampe, Stanley Lawrence Greenslade. The Cambridge History of the Bible: From the Beginnings to Jerome - Cambridge University Press, 1975 - ISBN 0-521-09973-0. - P. 367: “ Georgia was converted during the fourth century, tradition has it by the agency of an Armenian slave woman, and whether these details are in any measure true or not, the tradition probably indicates the source of the Georgians" knowledge of Christianity and the Christian scriptures. These did not begin to be translated into Georgian until Mesrop, provider of an Armenian alphabet, also supplied the Georgians with an adequate means of transcription for their speech».

David G.K.  Taylor. CHRISTIAN REGIONAL DIVERSITY // Philip Francis Esler, NetLibrary, Inc. The Early Christian World. Routledge, 2002. - ISBN 0-203-47062-1. - P. 335: " Because of its location on the Black Sea, Georgia was influenced by contacts with churches in Armenia (Mashtots, fresh from creating the Armenian alphabet, created a Georgian alphabet in c. 410)».

Perikhanyan A. G. On the question of the origin of Armenian writing // Near Asian collection. - M.: Nauka, 1966. - Issue. 2. - pp. 127-133.

Greppin, John A.C. : Some comments on the origin of the Georgian alphabet. - Bazmavep 139, 1981. - Pp. 449-456.

N. Ya. Marr. “On the unity of tasks of Armenian-Georgian philology” // Kavkazskiy Vestnik, 1902. No. 3. Quoted from Ter-Sarkisyants. History and culture of the Armenian people from ancient times to the beginning of the 19th century. - 2nd edition. - pp. 303-304.

Translations of the texts into English are given in Agop Jack Hacikyan, Gabriel Basmajian, Edward S. Franchuk, Nourhan Ouzounian, “The Heritage of Armenian Literature: From the sixth to the eighteenth century”, volume 2, Wayne State University Press, 2002, ISBN 0- 8143-3023-1, 9780814330234. Pg.  265-269

Muradyan P. M. “On the criticism of the text of the Third Message of Catholicos Abraham” - VON, 1968, #10 // Quoted from Ter-Sarkisyants. History and culture of the Armenian people from ancient times to the beginning of the 19th century. - 2nd edition. - P. 304.

Mouradian “The problem of St. Sahak’s and St. Mesrope’s “Perfect history” // Patmabanasirakan hands (Erevan) 169, 2005, nr. 2, 154-165

Serge N. Mouraviev. “Erkataguir, ou Comment naquit l’alphabet arménien.” Academia Verlag, 2010. P.29 note 23, Pp/ 202-203

Istrin V. A. The emergence and development of writing. Academy of Sciences of the USSR. From “Science”, Moscow, 1965. Pp. 357-358

Seibt, Werner The Creation of the Caucasian Alphabets as Phenomenon of Cultural History (undefined) . Archived from the original on December 7, 2012.“So Mashtots would have been at least an indirect initiator of the Georgian alphabet.”

SH Rapp Jr. The Georgian Nimrod // Kevork Bardakjian (ed.), Sergio La Porta (ed.). The Armenian Apocalyptic Tradition: A Comparative Perspective. BRILL, 2014. ISBN 9004270264, 9789004270268: "While certain details ol" the original fil"lh-century tradition may have been altered following the schism between the schism between the and eastern Georgian churches in the early seventh century, there are many reasons to believe that Armenia the invention of the three scripts did, in fact, belong to a single regional process in which Mastoc" was involved and that he perhaps supervised"

Sergey Muravyov. "Genesis of the Ancient Georgian Writing Asomtavruli"

Stephen H. Rapp. Studies in medieval Georgian historiography: early texts and Eurasian contexts, volume 601. Peeters Publishers, 2003. ISBN 90-429-1318-5, 9789042913189. Pp. 275. " While P'arnavaz may in fact be a fabrication, it is more feasible that over time the memory of the historical P'arnavaz accumulated a legendary facade.»

Tsereteli G.V. Armaz script and the problem of the origin of the Georgian alphabet. II // Epigraphy of the East. - M., L.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1949.

Berdzenishvili N., Javakhishvili I., Janashia S. History of Georgia: In 2 parts. Part 1. From ancient times to the beginning of the 19th century. - Tb. : State Publishing House of the GSSR, 1950.

Janashia S. N. On the question of the language and history of the Hittites. // Proceedings: In 3 volumes - Tb.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the GSSR, 1959.

Gamkrelidze T. Alphabetic writing and ancient Georgian writing (Typology and origin of alphabetic writing systems)

Historical Dictionary of Georgia. Alexander Mikaberidze. 2007. The Scarecrow Press, Inc. P. 114

Great Soviet encyclopedia: [in 30 volumes] / ch. ed. A. M. Prokhorov. - 3rd ed. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978.

Stephen H. Rapp. Studies in medieval Georgian historiography: early texts and Eurasian contexts. Peeters Publishers, 2003. - ISBN 90-429-1318-5. - P. 19: “ Not a shred of dated evidence has come to light confirming the invention of a Georgian alphabet by King P'arnavaz in the third century BC as is fabulously attested in the first text of K'C". Rather, the Georgian, Armenian, and Caucasian Albanian scripts were likely created by a Christian pan-Caucasian initiative in the late fourth/early fifth century AD. Moreover, all surviving MSS written in Georgian postdate K'art'li's fourth-century conversion to Christianity Not a shred of dated. evidence has come to light confirming the invention of a Georgian alphabet by King P'arnavaz in the third century VS as is fabulously attested in the first text of K'C"<…>Cf. Chilashvili’s “Nekresi” for the claim that a Geo. asomt’avruli burial description from Nekresi commemorates a Zoroastrian who died in the first/second century AD. Archaeological evidence confirms that a Zoroastrian temple once stood at Nekresi, but the date of the supposed grave marker is hopelessly circumstantial. Chilashvili reasons, on the basis of the first-/second-century date, that P'amavaz likely created the script in order to translate the Avesta (i.e.. sacred Zoroastrian writings) into Geo., thus turning on its head the argument that the Georgian script was deliberately fashioned by Christians in order to disseminate the New Testament. Though I accept eastern Georgia’s intimate connection to Iran, I cannot support Chilashvili’s dubious hypothesis. I find more palatable the idea that K’C actually refers to the introduction of a local form of written Aramaic during the reign of P’amavaz: Ceret’eli.” Aramaic, "p. 243."

V. A. Shnirelman, “Memory Wars. Myths, identity and politics in Transcaucasia", M., ICC, "Akademkniga", 2003. Previously, the book was published in Osaka on English (V. A. Shnirelman. The value of the past. Myths, identity and politics in Transcaucasia. - Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology (Senri Ethnological Studies No. 57), 2001. And although the aliens could have played a significant role in the formation of this people or its historical fate (Azerbaijanis received their modern language from the Turks; the Kipchaks and Ossetians provided considerable assistance to the Georgians in the fight against external enemies; Georgians played a big role in the development of culture among the Abkhazians and South Ossetians; Armenian culture has long been influenced by Turkish culture), in the versions discussed above ancient history the significance of cultural synthesis was minimized or completely ignored in the name of creating a myth about some pure original culture. In this regard, as we have seen, the painful attitude towards Mesrop Mashtots on the part of both Azerbaijani and Georgian authors is very characteristic.. - BRILL, 2014. - P. 24.

Levan Chilashvili"The Pre-Christian Georgian inscription from Nekresi". - Center for Kartvelian Studies, Tbilisi State University. The Kartvelologist (Journal of Georgian Studies), no. 7. - Tbilisi, 2000. - ISBN 99928-816-1-5

ზ. ჭუმბურიძე ჭუმბურიძე ზ. ნეკრესის წარწერების გამო. ალმანახი "მწიგნობარი 01", თბ., 2001 წ.( Chumburidze Z. Due to the Nekres inscriptions. // Almanac “Mtsignobari 01”. - Tb., 2001.)

Georgian letter- an alphabetic script used by some Kartvelian languages, primarily Georgian, but also sporadically Mingrelian, Svan and others. Reads from left to right. The modern Georgian alphabet consists of 33 letters; There are no capital letters in the alphabet, however, in headings and in some other cases, the entire word can be written without upper and lower leads, as if between two parallel lines (see illustration) - this writing serves as an analogue of capital letters in other alphabets.

In 1938-1954, the Georgian letter (with the introduction of additional characters) was also used for the Abkhazian and Ossetian (in South Ossetia) languages.

Historical sketch

The ancient Georgian script was used from early centuries mrglovani (asomtavruli); from the 9th century - writing nushuri (Nuskha-Khutsuri, khutsuri, church); and from the 11th century - writing mkhedruli (mkhedruli-kheli, saero, or civil). Mrglovani characterized by rounded shapes and the same size of letters, it was widespread until the 9th-10th centuries. He was replaced nushuri, characterized by greater efficiency and angular, slanted style. In the 10th century from nushuri is being formed mkhedreuli, with different vertical sizes and rounded shapes. Nuskhuri And mkhedreuli coexisted for many centuries, with the first being used in church literature, and the second in civil practice. However, in the 17th century nushuri fell out of use, and letterforms stabilized.

The Georgian alphabet was the basis for the “Caucasian alphabet”, created by Baron Uslar to record the unwritten languages ​​of the Caucasus.

In Kartvelistics there are different hypotheses about the prototype of the Georgian alphabet. According to various theories, it is based on Aramaic, Greek or Coptic writing. The German scientist H. Juncker, a specialist in Iranian linguistics, put forward the version that the Mkhedruli, like the Khutsuri, are based, like the Armenian alphabet, on the Aramaic-Pahlavi script, pointing out the continuity of the Khutsuri script from the Arsacid Pahlavi, independent of the Armenian script. According to Juncker, the Mkhedruli letter can be interpreted as a cursive variety of Khutsuri, and can be considered in its more ancient forms as a letter that preceded it.

Most widely distributed in the world historical science received a point of view based on Armenian primary sources of the 5th-7th centuries, according to which the creator of the first Georgian letter - Mrgvlovani- is Mesrop Mashtots (who also created the Armenian alphabet in 405 AD). However, this statement is not confirmed in non-Armenian primary sources. The hypothesis about the creation of the Georgian script by Mashtots is supported by major encyclopedias and academic scientists. According to A. G. Perikhanyan and J. Grippin, Mesrop Mashtots may not have been the direct creator of Georgian writing, but the latter could not have arisen without his participation.

The arguments in favor of the version about Mashtots, in addition to the Koryun legend itself, are as follows:

• Nikolai Marr in the article “ On the unity of tasks of Armenian-Georgian philology" noted the great similarity of the ancient Armenian alphabet and the Georgian church script (khutsuri): "Georgian church script, the only one used in Georgia by scribes until the 10th-11th centuries, really shows extreme closeness to the Armenian alphabet».
• Objecting to Javakhishvili's argument that the record of Mashtots' creation of the Georgian alphabet appeared in later correspondences of Koryun's work, Muradyan cites the third letter of the Armenian Catholicos Abraham to the Kartli bishop Kirion (607, after the division of the Armenian and Georgian churches in 604, when the latter accepted the principles of the Council of Chalcedon), where it is said that Christianity in Armenia and Georgia came from the same source, “ first the blessed st. Gregory, and then Mashtots, and the knowledge of letters in the steadfastness of faith" Kirion’s sharp response letter is also known, where he does not object in a word to Abraham’s arguments about the role of Mashtots for the Georgian church. From this Muradyan concludes that these figures at the turn of the VI-VII centuries. were well aware of the role of Mashtots in the creation of the Georgian alphabet.
• A number of researchers agree that Koryun is not the only source of ancient information about the invention of alphabets by Mesrop, but also Khorenatsi, who supplements Koryun with details missing from the latter.

Historian of writing V. Istrin highlighted the following arguments of Georgian scientists denying Mashtots’ participation in the creation of the alphabet:

• Only Koryun and Khorenatsi write about Mashtots’ creation of the Georgian alphabet.
• Paleographic analysis of the oldest Georgian inscriptions, which makes the most likely version of the emergence of the Georgian alphabet based on Aramaic at the beginning of our era
• Lack of significant similarities between the Armenian and Georgian alphabets

Analyzing these arguments, V. Istrin believes that the third argument is the least convincing, since Mashtots’ method of constructing the Armenian alphabet demonstrates the correspondence of the alphabet with the phonetics and decorative art of Armenia, and in the case of constructing the Georgian alphabet, Mashtots would have been guided by other phonetic and decorative principles. Objecting to the second argument, Istrin notes that the basis on which the Georgian alphabet was built is also unclear. The Aramaic hypothesis (Muller, Taylor, Javakhishvili, Tsereteli, etc.) refers to the similarity of a number of letters and the general graphic style, but there are no less similarities between Georgian and Greek letters. Georgian and Greek letters are vocalized-sound, and Aramaic is consonantal-sound. The direction of Georgian writing is from left to right, and Aramaic is vice versa. Finally, the order of the letters of the Georgian alphabet is closer to the Greek.

Arguing by the absence of events related to the invention of Georgian letters by Mashtots in the Georgian chronicles, Werner Seibt considers the data from this chapter of Koryun’s text rather suspicious. Since neither Lazar Parpetsi, who wrote in the 5th century, nor Eznik, who was a student of Mashtots, mentions anything about the creation of the Georgian letter by Mashtots, Zeibt suggests that this chapter is a later insertion into Koryun’s text. Based on the discovery of the oldest Georgian inscriptions in Palestine, Werner Seibt proposed a hypothesis according to which the Georgian letter could have been invented there, by Georgian monks who learned about the translation of the Bible into Armenian, therefore Mashtots played at least the role of an indirect initiator of the creation of the Georgian letter .

Marr was also of the opinion that Mkhedruli was the result of the development of pre-Christian Georgian writing, which underwent changes under the influence of the Khutsuri and continued to be used in the civil and military spheres.

According to the 11th century Georgian author Leonti Mroveli, who may have had more ancient sources, as well as a similar message from Mkhitar of Ayrivank, dating back to Kartlis Tskhovreba, the Georgian alphabet was created by the semi-legendary king Pharnavaz I in the 3rd century BC. e. Georgian historians overwhelmingly adhere to the point of view that the Georgian alphabet arose before Mesrop Mashtots. Thus, Javakhishvili assigned the time of the emergence of the Georgian alphabet to the 7th century BC. e. Janashia also argued about the impossibility of the emergence of the alphabet later than the 7th century BC. e., stating that at this time the Georgians had to switch from the ancient hieroglyphic and cuneiform Georgian writing to the phonetic one. In this regard, Sergei Muravyov notes that science does not have not only a single example of a hieroglyphic or cuneiform Georgian inscription, but even a hint of the existence of such, and regards such dating as “extravagant scientific mythologies.” Pavle Ingorokva and Pataridze were also of the opinion that Georgian writing must have been created long before the spread of Christianity. K. Kekelidze and A. Shanidze linked the creation of the Georgian alphabet with the adoption of Christianity. A small group of Georgian researchers claim the creation of a Georgian script based on Sumerian.

Stephen Rapp notes that there is no evidence to support the legend that Farnavaz created the alphabet. The earliest surviving monuments of Georgian writing date back to the 5th century. As Donald Rayfield notes, major archaeological sites of the 1st century AD. e. contain inscriptions only in Greek and Aramaic. Werner Seibt also believes that stories about the pre-Christian origin of Georgian writing should not be taken seriously. Shnirelman notes that Georgian historians tend to have a painful attitude towards Mesrop Mashtots, whose activities interfere with “the creation of a myth about a pure, original culture.”

The most ancient monuments in Georgian

The oldest Georgian alphabet, discovered in Upper Svaneti on the western wall of the Ats Church of the Archangels, contains 37 letters and dates back to the 11th century. The oldest Georgian inscriptions are two of the four inscriptions discovered during excavations of the ancient Georgian monastery at Bir el-Qutta, in Palestine and dating back to 429-444, although not all scholars agree with such an early dating. The inscription of Bolnisi Zion is the second oldest (493-494)

Georgian historian Levan Chilashvili, exploring the pagan sanctuaries located in the Kakheti village of Nekresi in the second half of the 1990s, discovered a fragment of a heavily damaged tombstone stele (later called the Nekresi inscription) and other fragments on which inscriptions of a Mazdaist nature were written in the “Asomtavruli” font, which were dated by him and other Georgian historians to at the latest the 3rd century AD. e., before Georgia adopted Christianity. According to Donald Rayfield, the claim that Georgian writing is of pre-Christian origin seems unlikely and is not supported by archaeology. Stephen Rapp also notes that this dating of the Nekres inscription is doubtful.

Georgian alphabet

Letter	Name	Digital Meaning	IPA	ISO 9984	Romanization	Correspondence Cyrillic	Mkhedruliმხედრული	Nuskhuriⴌⴓⴑⴞⴓⴐⴈ	AsomtavruliႠႱႭႫႧႠႥႰႳႪႨ
ა	ანი	1	ɑ	A a	A a	A a
ბ	ბანი	2	b	B b	B b	B b
გ	განი	3	g	G g	G g	G g
დ	დონი	4	d	D d	D d	D d
ე	ენი	5	ɛ	E e	E e	Eh, Ee
ვ	ვინი	6	v	Vv	Vv	In in
ზ	ზენი	7	z	Z z	Z z	Z z
ჱ	ჰე	8	ɛj	-	-	-
თ	თანი	9	tʰ	T' t'	T t	Ҭ ҭ
ი	ინი	10	ɪ	I i	I i	And and
კ	კანი	20	k'	K k	K' k'	K k
ლ	ლასი	30	l	Ll	Ll	L l
მ	მანი	40	m	Mm	Mm	Mm
ნ	ნარი	50	n	Nn	Nn	N n
ჲ	ჲე	60	j	-	-	Thy
ო	ონი	70	ɔ	O o	O o	Oh oh
პ	პარი	80	p'	P p	P' p'	P p
ჟ	ჟანი	90	ʒ	Ž ž	Zh zh	F
რ	რაე	100	r	R r	R r	R r
ს	სანი	200	s	Ss	Ss	With with
ტ	ტარი	300	t'	T t	T' t'	T t
ჳ	ვიე	400	wi	-	-	-
უ	უნი	-	u	U u	U u	U y
ფ	ფარი	500	pʰ	P' p'	P p	Ҧ ҧ
ქ	ქანი	600	kʰ	K' k'	K k	Қ қ
ღ	ღანი	700	ʁ	Ḡ ḡ	Gh gh	Ҕ ҕ (Г’г’)
ყ	ყარი	800	q'	Q q	Q' q'	Ҟ ҟ
შ	შინი	900	ʃ	Š š	Sh sh	Sh sh
ჩ	ჩინი	1000	tʃ	Č’ č’	Ch ch	H h
ც	ცანი	2000	ts	C' c'	Ts ts	Ts ts
ძ	ძილი	3000	dz	J j	Dz dz	Ӡ ӡ
წ	წილი	4000	tsʼ	C c	Ts' ts'	Ҵ ҵ
ჭ	ჭარი	5000	tʃʼ	Č č	Ch' ch'	Ҷ ҷ
ხ	ხანი	6000	χ	X x	Kh kh	X x
ჴ	ჴარ	7000	q	-	-	-
ჯ	ჯანი	8000	dʒ	J̌ ǰ	J j	Џ џ
ჰ	ჰაე	9000	h	H h	H h	Ҳ ҳ
ჵ	ჰოე	10000	hɔɛ	-	-	-

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