Georgian Language Guide

Official language in
Georgia
Script
Georgian

Where it's spoken

The Constitution of Georgia makes Georgian the official language of Georgia, and, in the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia, Abkhazian as well.

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Script & pronunciation

The Georgian script is used primarily for writing Georgian and its dialects, and it is also used for the Svan and Mingrelian languages. Mkhedruli is the form of the Georgian alphabet used for nearly all modern Georgian writing. It is written from left to right, and spaces separate words. Mkhedruli has been fundamentally caseless since its development; in most modern writing, a style called Mtavruli, in which all letters stand at an equal height, has been used for emphasis and headlines. Modern Georgian text uses European punctuation conventions. This app's romanization follows Georgia's national system, in which an apostrophe marks an abruptive consonant as opposed to the matching aspirated one: კ is k' and ქ is k. For example, the cards romanize კარგად ვარ, გმადლობთ ("I'm fine, thank you") as K'argad var, gmadlobt, and ქართულად ვერ ვლაპარაკობ ("I can't speak Georgian") as Kartulad ver vlap'arak'ob. The same system uses letter pairs for single Georgian letters, such as kh for ხ, gh for ღ and sh for შ, as in Nakhvamdis ("Goodbye").

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Grammar essentials

The basic word order of Georgian is subject–object–verb: ხორცი ვერ ვჭამ. (Khortsi ver vch'am., "I can't eat meat.") puts ხორცი ("meat") before the verb. Georgian has no grammatical gender, so this app's card for მე (Me, "I / me") notes that it does not change with the speaker's sex. Adjectives come before the noun, as in ცივი წყალი მომიტანეთ (Tsivi ts'q'ali momit'anet, "Please bring cold water"), where ცივი ("cold") precedes წყალი ("water"). Georgian uses postpositions rather than prepositions. A verb is negated with a separate negative word placed before it: this app's cards use არ for "not", as in არ შეიძლება? (Ar sheidzleba?, "Is it not allowed?"), and ვერ (ver) for "cannot", as in the meat example above. Yes/no questions are marked by intonation alone, with no question word, as in ინგლისურად ლაპარაკობთ? (Inglisurad lap'arak'obt?, "Do you speak English?").

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Politeness & etiquette

Georgian has two pronouns for "you": შენ is the familiar form for one person, and თქვენ is used for several people and as the polite form for one or more. This app's card gives თქვენ (Tkven, "You (polite)") for use with strangers, and შენ for friends and people younger than you. The verb takes the same ending, -t, for the polite form and for the plural: როგორ ხართ? (Rogor khart?, "How are you?") and გმადლობთ (Gmadlobt, "Thank you") both carry it. This app's card gives გამარჯობა (Gamarjoba, "Hello") as a greeting for any time of day.

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