Old Georgian

Template:Short description Template:Template other Old Georgian (ႤႬႠჂ ႵႠႰႧႭჃႪႨ, enay kartuli) is a literary language of the Georgian monarchies attested from the 5th century. The language remains in use as the liturgical language of the Georgian Orthodox Church and for the most part is still intelligible. Spoken Old Georgian gave way to what is classified as Middle Georgian in the 11th century, which in turn developed into the modern Georgian language in the 18th century.

Periodization

Two periods are distinguished within Old Georgian: Early Old Georgian (5th to 8th centuries) and Classical Old Georgian (9th to 11th centuries). Two different dialects are represented in Early Old Georgian, known as Khanmet’i (ხანმეტი, 5th to 7th c.) and Haemet’i (ჰაემეტი, 7th and 8th c.). They are so named after the presence of a second-person subject prefix and a third-person object prefix kh- or h- in the verbal morphology where Classical Old Georgian has h-, s- or zero.

Texts

The corpus of Early Old Georgian texts is limited in size, consisting of a dozen inscriptions and eight manuscripts containing religious texts. The literature in Classical Old Georgian has a wider scope, including philosophical and historiographical works.

Phoneme inventory

Old Georgian had 29 phonemic consonants and 5 phonemic vowels. The native spelling also distinguishes the semivowel y, which is an allophone of the vowel i in postvocalic position.

The table shows the consonants in the National Transliteration System (2002). This system leaves aspiration unmarked, and marks glottalization with an apostrophe. International Phonetic Alphabet equivalents are included in square brackets when different.

Old Georgian consonants

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar		Alveo- palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
			plain	sib.
Plosive/ Affricate	aspirated	p Template:IPAblink	t Template:IPAblink	ts Template:IPAblink	ch Template:IPAblink	k Template:IPAblink	q Template:IPAblink
	glottalized	p’ Template:IPAblink	t’ Template:IPAblink	ts’ Template:IPAblink	ch’ Template:IPAblink	k’ Template:IPAblink	q’ Template:IPAblink
	voiced	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	j Template:IPAblink	g Template:IPAblink
Fricative	voiceless			Template:IPA link	sh Template:IPAblink		kh Template:IPAblink	Template:IPA link
	voiced			Template:IPA link	zh Template:IPAblink		gh Template:IPAblink
Nasal		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Trill			Template:IPA link
Lateral			Template:IPA link
Semivowel		Template:IPA link			y Template:IPAblink

Old Georgian vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Mid	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Low		Template:IPA link

According to Schanidse, word stress in Old Georgian fell on the antepenultimate (third-to-last) syllable of a word, exceptionally, stress fell on the penultimate (second-to-last) syllable of a word if the word contained the question particle -Ⴀ (-a), e.g ႫႭႥႨႣႠ (móvida, "s/he/it came") but ႫႭႥႨႣႠႠ (movidáa? "Did s/he/it come?").

Morphosyntax

Old Georgian verbs are polysynthetic with noun incorporation was still an active morphosyntactic process; the incorporated object always precedes the head.

Script

Old Georgian was written in its own alphabetic script, known as Asomtavruli "capital letters" or Mrglovani "rounded". The alphabet is very nearly phonemic, showing an excellent "fit" between phonemes and graphemes. It is clearly modelled on the Greek alphabet, showing basically the same alphabetic order, and with letters representing non-Greek phonemes gathered at the end. Apart from letters for nearly all Georgian phonemes, the alphabet also contains three letters representing Greek phonemes not found in Georgian (ē, ü and ō). Most individual letters seem to be entirely independent designs, with only a few based directly on their Greek counterparts (cf. Greek Φ Θ Χ [pʰ tʰ kʰ], Asomtavruli Ⴔ Ⴇ Ⴕ).

Old Georgian Asomtavruli alphabet

Greek	Α	Β	Γ	Δ	Ε	Ϝ	Ζ	Η	Θ	Ι	Κ	Λ	Μ	Ν	(Ξ)	Ο	Π	(Ϙ)	Ρ
Asomtavruli	Ⴀ	Ⴁ	Ⴂ	Ⴃ	Ⴄ	Ⴅ	Ⴆ	Ⴡ	Ⴇ	Ⴈ	Ⴉ	Ⴊ	Ⴋ	Ⴌ	Ⴢ	Ⴍ	Ⴎ	Ⴏ	Ⴐ
Transliteration	a	b	g	d	e	v	z	ē	t	i	k’	l	m	n	y	o	p’	zh	r
Greek	Σ	Τ	Υ	Φ	Χ	(Ψ)	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	Ω
Asomtavruli	Ⴑ	Ⴒ	Ⴣ	Ⴔ	Ⴕ	Ⴖ	Ⴗ	Ⴘ	Ⴙ	Ⴚ	Ⴛ	Ⴜ	Ⴝ	Ⴞ	Ⴤ	Ⴟ	Ⴠ	Ⴥ
Transliteration	s	t’	ü	p	k	gh	q’	sh	ch	ts	dz	ts’	ch’	kh	q	j	h	ō

Orthography

Old Georgian orthography is quite consistent, in the sense that the same word is usually written in the same way in all instances. Spelling is nearly phonemic, with almost all phonemes exclusively represented by a single letter. The exceptions are described below.

Vowel u

The most conspicuous exception to the rule that each phoneme is written with its own letter is the vowel u, which is consistently written with the digraph ႭჃ Template:Angbr, for example ႮႭჃႰႨ Template:Angbr p’uri "bread". This usage was evidently adopted from Greek spelling, which writes as Template:Angbr. In the later Nuskhuri script, the original digraph ⴍⴣ Template:Angbr merged into a single letter ⴓ Template:Angbr (modern Mkhedruli script უ). A matching Asomtavruli single-letter counterpart Ⴓ was then devised; this letter was not part of the original alphabet, and was not used in the Old Georgian period.

Semivowel w

The semivowel w is written in two ways, depending on its position within the word. When it occurs directly after a consonant, it is written with the digraph ႭჃ Template:Angbr, for example ႹႭჃႤႬ Template:Angbr chwen "we", ႢႭჃႰႨႲႨ Template:Angbr gwrit’i "turtledove". The digraph ႭჃ Template:Angbr thus represents both w and u, without differentiation in the spelling, for example ႵႭჃႧႨ Template:Angbr "five" vs. ႤႵႭჃႱႨ Template:Angbr "six".

In all other positions, w is written with the letter Ⴅ Template:Angbr, for example ႧႭႥႪႨ Template:Angbr "snow", ႥႤႪႨ Template:Angbr weli "field", ႩႠႰႠႥႨ Template:Angbr k’arawi "tent".

The two spellings of clearly represent an allophonic variation like the one described for modern Georgian, between in postconsonantal position and or in other positions. In modern Georgian spelling (as standardized in 1879), both and are consistently written with ვ Template:Angbr, and spellings with Ⴅ Template:Angbr instead of the expected ႭჃ Template:Angbr are already found in Old Georgian.

Semivowel y

The initial vowel i- of a case suffix is realized as y- after a vowel, and this allophonic y has its own letter in the alphabet, for example:

The "Greek" letters

The Asomtavruli alphabet contains three letters which are not needed for the writing of native words: Ⴡ Template:Angbr, Ⴣ Template:Angbr and Ⴥ Template:Angbr. These were added to the alphabet in order to make possible a letter-for-letter transliteration of Greek names and loanwords. They were indeed occasionally used to write the Greek vowels ē (ēta), ü (ypsilon) and ō (ōmega). As these vowels are alien to Georgian, they were replaced in actual pronunciation by ey, wi and ow respectively, as can be deduced from old variant spellings, and from corresponding modern forms. For example, Greek Αἴγυπτος is written ႤႢჃႮႲႤ Template:Angbr egwip’t’e "Egypt" (cf. modern Georgian ეგვიპტე egvip’t’e).

In native words, the letter Ⴥ Template:Angbr was mainly used to write the vocative particle, for example:

The letters Ⴡ Template:Angbr and Ⴣ Template:Angbr on the other hand were frequently used in the spelling of native words, as a short-hand way of representing the sequences ey and wi, for example ႫႤႴჁ Template:Angbr "king", ႶჃႬႭჂ Template:Angbr ghwinoy "wine". Spelling can thus vary within a paradigm, for example ႱႨႲႷႭჃႠჂ Template:Angbr sit’q’wa-y "word" (nominative case) vs. ႱႨႲႷჃႱႠ Template:Angbr sit’q’w-isa (genitive). The sequences ey and wi could also be written out in full however, for example ႫႤႴႤჂ Template:Angbr , ႶႭჃႨႬႭჂ Template:Angbr "wine" (also ႶჃႨႬႭჂ Template:Angbr, a mixed spelling).

External links

• Грамматика древнелитературного грузинского языка Template:In lang by Nicholas Marr Digital Library of Russian Academy of Sciences
• Grammatik zur altgeorgischen Bibelübersetzung by Franz Zorell Template:In lang Digital Library of Marthin Luther University