Old Georgian language
| Old Georgian
ႤႬႠჂ ႵႠႰႧႭჃႪႨ |
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|---|---|---|
| Period | 4th-11th century | |
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Formerly spoken in |
present day Georgia | |
| Linguistic classification |
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| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-3 |
oge |
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Old Georgian ( Georgian ძველი ქართული ენა ) is a preliminary stage of the Georgian language . Old Georgian means more closely Georgian, which was spoken between the 4th and 11th centuries. ( Middle Georgian was spoken from the 11th century .)
Phonology
Consonantism
Old Georgian has a relatively large inventory with 31 consonants . Particularly noteworthy is the existence of glottalized plosives , for example pˀ , tˀ and kˀ . This type of consonant can be found in many Caucasian languages .
The pronunciation of the old Georgian consonants is very similar to that of the New Georgian.
The appearance of the harmonic groups is characteristic. When two consonants meet, one assimilates to the other in terms of voicing , aspiration, and glottalization. For example, in the passive form of the verb tˀex- ('break'), the vowel is deleted. Since the two consonants are then in direct contact, the second assimilates to the first: tˀex- → tˀx- → tˀqˀ- .
In sonorant consonants sometimes occur metathesis . For example: qrmal-i ('sword-NOM'), but rqml-eb-i ('swords', more precisely: 'sword-PL-NOM').
Vocalism
The old Georgian vowels were also articulated in a similar way to the New Georgian.
| front | central | back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| closed | i | u | ||||
| medium | e | O | ||||
| open | a | |||||
To syncope often occurs when vowels affixes are attached and then the syllables would speed increase. For example: cˀqˀal-i ('Water-NOM') → cˀqˀl-is ('Water-GEN'). In such cases / u / and / o / are reduced to [w] (see also: sliding sound ).
Emphasis
Like New Georgian, Old Georgian had a dynamic accent . In two-syllable and three-syllable words, the first syllable was often stressed.
Phonotactics
Old Georgian is characterized by a large number of consonant clusters . These clusters can be found both initial, internal or final. Examples of this are mcnebaj ('commandment') or mkˀwircxl ('cheerful, fresh, lively') (after Fähnrich (1991: 40)). Clusters that are too complex are resolved by deleting a sound ( labials are often deleted): tkwmuli → tkmuli ('said').
There are also vowel clusters; they can also be found in all parts of the word. A hiatus is not uncommon here . For example moaoqres ('they devastated') (Fähnrich (1991: 40)).
If two identical sound sequences meet, one of them is usually deleted. For example: / romelta tana / → [romeltana] ('with them').
Nominal stems primarily have the form CVC and prefixes the form CV-. Suffix are mostly the mirror image of the typical prefix and therefore often have the form -VC. (Where C = consonant and V = vowel.)
morphology
Flexion and derivation act for the most part with the help of affixes. The degree of synthesis of these affixes was separative in the sense that almost every affix expressed exactly one meaning. The few affixes that could express two meanings also triggered an alternation of the word stem .
By concatenation (see also synthetic language ) in connection with the separative synthesis degree of affixes result for the typical long Altgeorgische prefix - and suffix chains.
Types of word formation are complete reduplication , prefixation, suffixation, or composition , vowel alternations in the stem.
Old Georgian had the following cases , all of which were encoded with suffixes on the noun:
- Nominative
- Ergative (Ensign (1994: 3): " subject kasus [...] for the active verbs , which in a form of the aorist needed group.")
- Genitive
- Aditive
- dative
- Instrumental
- Adverbial
- vocative
The case morphemes occupy the second suffix slot , resulting in the following sequence: stem - plural marker - case marker .
The verb conjugation is also diverse - the language has several iteratives , subjunctive and imperatives . Optionally, the verb can also be congruent with the indirect and direct object .
Parts of speech
Nouns
In Old Georgian there is no gender and no grammatical classes, that is, there are no declension classes - the language is inflexible. To express the sexus (natural gender), the nouns are combined with corresponding adjectives .
Old Georgian had three numbers , namely singular , n- plural and eb-plural. "It is assumed that the n-plural arose from an earlier dual " (Fähnrich 1994: 55). Singular and n-plural differ through different case suffixes, whereby in n-plural ergative, genitive, aditive, dative, instrumental and adverbial are syncretic . The name "n-plural" is perhaps derived from the suffixes for nominative and vocative, where an [n] is placed in front of the singular form. The eb plural is formed by inserting -eb- between the stem and the case suffix.
Case marker:
| case | Singular | eb plural | n plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | -i / -j | -eb-i | -ni |
| Ergative | -man | -eb-man | -t (a) |
| Genitive | -is (a) / -js (a) | -eb-is (a) | -t (a) |
| Aditive | -isa / -jsa | -eb-isa | -t (a) |
| dative | -s (a) | -eb-s (a) | -t (a) |
| Instrumental | -it (a) / -jt (a) | -eb-it (a) | -t (a) |
| Adverbial | -ad / -d | -eb-ad | -t (a) |
| vocative | -O | -eb-o | -no |
Nouns that end in l use only -d in the adverbial . Nouns on a border, use the nominative, genitive and Aditiv j forms.
items
The following demonstrative pronouns were used as a definite article . There are no indefinite articles, if the noun occurs without an article, then it has an indefinite meaning. Nouns with article could not be in the vocative.
Adjectives
Adjectives congruated in case and number with the nouns and were usually placed after them. The inflection was identical to that of the nouns.
Pronouns
The pronouns of the 2nd person singular ( ʃen , 'du'), 1st person plural ( ʧʰwen , 'we') and 2nd person plural ( tkwen , 'you') cannot be inflected. The third persons are expressed by demonstrative pronouns: ese ('this'), ege ('der da', between 'this' and 'those') and igi / isi ('that'). These pronouns only have two numbers because the eb plural does not exist for them. As soon as they are declined, a stem alternation occurs (more precisely: suppletion ).
3rd person pronoun in the singular
| case | ese | ege | igi | isi |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | ese | ege | igi | isi |
| Ergative | ama-n | maga-n | ma-n | ima-n |
| Genitive | am-is | likes-is | m-is | im-is |
| Aditive | am-isa | mag-isa | m-isa | im-isa |
| dative | ama-s | -maga-s | ma-s | ima-s |
| Instrumental | am-it | like-it | With | im-it |
| Adverbial | ama-d | maga-d | ima-d |
3rd person pronouns in plural
| case | ese | ege | igi | isi |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | ese-ni | ege-ni | igi-ni | isi-ni |
| Obliquus | ama-t | maga-t | ma-t | ima-t |
| Aditive | am-ta | mag-ta | m-ta | im-ta |
Interrogative pronouns are vin ('who'), raj ('what'), raodeni ('how much') and romeli ('which'). raj is only used in the singular. vin and raj have no instrumental.
Relative pronouns can be formed by adding the following elements to the interrogative pronouns:
- Particles - approx
- Particle ese , ege or igi (related to the nominative forms of demonstrative pronouns), the choice of particle depends on the person who is being relativized, on the tense of the verb of the relative clause and on the indexical , deictic particles mi ('from the point of reference, fern ') and mo (' towards the reference point, near ') from (Manning 1997: 2)
Verbs
The old Georgian verb has a very rich morphology, which differs depending on the tense and can express the following categories (following list according to Fähnrich 1994: 78):
- Preverb I
- Preverb II
- Preverb III
- Subject congruence marker
- Object congruence marker
- Character vowel
- tribe
- Direct object marker
- passive
- Causative
- number
- indirect speech
- Question particle
- Modal particle
The pre- verbs can appear separated from the rest of the verb by tmesis .
syntax
Active and passive verb forms differ syntactically through different case assignments. Verbs in the passive voice assign the nominative to the subject and the dative (to any indirect object). Active verbs differ again with regard to tense in the case assignment:
- Present tense : subject is in the nominative, objects in the dative
- Aorist: subject is in the ergative, direct object is in the nominative and indirect object is in the dative
- Perfect: subject in the dative, direct object in the nominative
Due to the pronounced morphology, a relatively free word order is possible, as the roles are easy to assign. Nevertheless, there is a tendency towards SOV (i.e.: subject-object-verb / predicate).
Numerals and counting system
The old Georgian had a vigesimal system up to 100 . Ordinal numbers were based on the basic number of words by appending the Zirkumfixes me- ... -e formed.
The basic numbers are:
- erti
- ori
- sami
- otxi
- xuti
- ekwsi
- ʃwidi
- rvaj
- cxraj
- ati
- breathes metˀi
- atormetˀi
- atsametˀi
- atotxmetˀi
- atxutmetˀi
- atekwsmetˀi
- atʃwidmetˀi
- atrvametˀi
- atcxeametˀi
- oci
30 = ocdaati , 40 = ormeci , 50 = ergasisi , 60 = sameoci , 70 = sameocdaati , 80 = otxmeoci , 90 = otxmeocdaati , 100 = asi .
Scripture and traditions
According to Fähnrich (1994: 1), Old Georgian has been handed down in three different types of text: Chanmeti texts (4th - 7th centuries), Haemeti texts (7th and 8th centuries) and Sani texts (from 9th century .). The various texts differ in part through the use of different congruence markers.
Old Georgian was written in Mrglowani until the 9th century and then in Nuskhuri. Up to the 9th century there were almost only spiritual documents, after which more and more philosophical and historical documents were created.
swell
- Fähnrich, H. (1994). Grammar of the old Georgian language. Hamburg: Buske.
- Manning, HP (1997). Indexical operators and scope relations in the Old Georgian relative clause. Linguistics, 35, 513-563
- Zorell, F. (1930; 1930). Grammar for the old Georgian Bible translation. Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute.
