Georgian

Where it’s spoken

Georgian (ქართული, kartuli) is the sole official language of Georgia. About 3.7 million people speak it as a first language. It is also used by Georgian minorities in Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran, and the Georgian diaspora in Europe and North America. The Kartvelian family also includes Mingrelian, Laz, and Svan — sometimes considered separate languages, sometimes Georgian dialects.

What it sounds like

Georgian is famous for its consonant-heavy phonology — onset clusters can include four or more consonants (gvprtskvni “you peel us”). It has 28 consonants including ejective stops (p’, t’, k’, c’, ch’) contrasted with aspirated and voiced ones. Stress is generally weak and not phonemically distinctive.

How it’s written

Georgian uses its own indigenous Mkhedruli alphabet (currently 33 letters) — one of only 14 writing systems in current use that are not derived from a non-Latin/non-Cyrillic alphabet. The script reads left to right. Modern Georgian text has no case distinction (no upper/lowercase).

History

Georgian has one of the world’s oldest continuous literary traditions — the first inscriptions in the Asomtavruli script date to the 5th century CE. The Mkhedruli script in current use was developed by the 11th century. Modern literary Georgian was shaped by figures like Ilia Chavchavadze.