Manana Tandashvili

Manana Tandashvili (Georgian მანანა თანდაშვილი , born May 22, 1960 in Tbilisi , Georgia ) is a Georgian linguist and Kaukasiologist . She is an adjunct professor at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main (2002) and an honorary citizen of the city of Tbilisi (2011).

Manana Tandashvili

Career

Manana Tandashvili studied Caucasus Studies at the State University of Tbilisi. 1988–1993 she completed the candidacy at the Academy of Sciences of Georgia and received her doctorate in 1993 at the Arnold Tschikobava Institute for Linguistics. In 1999 she completed her habilitation there on the subject of “Basic principles of computer modeling (based on Georgian and Udic)”. In 2006 she was given the inaugural lecture “Multilingual Code Switching” at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main .

From 1993 to 1995 Tandashvili worked as a research assistant at the Arnold Tschikobava Institute for Linguistics in Tbilisi. From 1995 to 1999 she was head of the Computational Linguistics department at that same institute. In 1999 she received a research grant from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and worked in Germany first with Wolfgang Schulze at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, then with Jost Gippert at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. Since 2002 she has been working at the Institute for Empirical Linguistics at Frankfurt University. From 2007 to 2008 she was the substitute for the professorship for Caucasus Studies at the Schiller University in Jena.

Teaching

University of Frankfurt am Main

Manana Tandaschwili has been teaching at German universities ( Munich , Jena and Frankfurt am Main ) since 1999 . In addition to courses in her specialty (Caucasian linguistics), she gives introductory courses in linguistics and special courses in the digital processing of linguistic data. Together with Zakharia Pourtskhvanidze, she integrates learning methods such as e-learning ( OLAT ) and e-lecture into her teaching. She works on the internationalization of the learning processes in Caucasus at Frankfurt University by including Georgian scientists in her lectures on linguistics, political science, law, and anthropology.

Teaching assignments

Lecturer at the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Institute for Empirical Linguistics since 2002

General Linguistics (Introduction)
Linguistic Terminology (Introduction)
Linguistic directions and schools
Language contact and bilingualism
Digital processing of linguistic data
Peoples and languages of the Caucasus
Caucasian Linguistics (Introduction)
Comparative grammar of the Kartvel languages
Georgian (introduction, Georgian reading, Georgian syntax)
The old Georgian
The Middle Georgian
The Svanic (introduction)
Megrelian (introduction)
The Avarian (Introduction)
The Udische (introduction, Udische reading)
Special problems in Kaukasiology

Ergativity in the Kartvel languages
Case typology in the Caucasian languages
Relative clauses in Georgian
Negation in the Kartvel languages
Referentiality in Georgian
Modality in Georgian

Research areas

Albanian palimpsest manuscript on the Sinai

Manana Tandashvili’s research interests are generally in the area of Kaukasiology, as well as in the area of electronic processing of linguistic data. During her work at the Arnold Chikobava Institute for Linguistics in Georgia, she started to design digital databases for the Caucasian languages. With the support of the Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities, she was able to realize her project “Development of an annotated bibliography database with retrieval system for the Caucasian languages” at the University of Frankfurt (Institute for Comparative Linguistics) (1998–1999). As an Alexander von Humboldt fellow, she dealt with the structure of electronic databases and, in collaboration with Jost Gippert, created a systematically oriented platform for the Caucasian languages. Since 1999 she has been intensively involved in the internationalization of Georgian linguistics through international projects. Various projects implemented in cooperation with Jost Gippert have enabled over 200 Georgian researchers to take part in international projects and to get to know modern methodological and technological processes relating to the digital processing of linguistic data. Manana Tandaschwili has been working with Jost Gippert, Paul Meurer and Marine Beridze on the creation of the Georgian national corpus since 2011.

Projects

“Development of an annotated bibliography database with a retrieval system for the Caucasian languages” - 1998–1999 at the University of Frankfurt, Institute for Comparative Linguistics, Frankfurt a / M (scholarship from the Union of the German Academy of Sciences);
“Text Grammar of the Udic Gospels” - 1999–2002; Cooperation with Prof. Dr. Jost Gippert (Frankfurt a / M) and Prof. Dr. W. Schulze (Munich) as a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation ;

International projects

International projects in collaboration with Jost Gippert

ARMAZI project (“Caucasian Languages and Cultures: Electronic Documentation”) - 1999–2002 ( Volkswagen Foundation );
ECLinG project (“Threatened Caucasian Languages in Georgia”) - 2002–2005 ( Volkswagen Foundation );
International Conference “The Linguistic Situation in Contemporary Georgia”; December 12-14, 2003; Frankfurt a / M ( Volkswagen Foundation );
Caucasian Palimpsests (“New Paths for the Scientific Processing of Palimpsest Manuscripts of Caucasian Provenance”) - 2004–2006 ( Volkswagen Foundation );
SSGG (“The Linguistic Situation in Contemporary Georgia”) - 2005–2007 ( Volkswagen Foundation );
Critical Edition of the Old Georgian Version of Matthew's and Mark's Gospels - Catalog of the Manuscripts Containing the Old Georgian Translation of the Gospels - 2006–2009 (INTAS);
International conference "Between Europe and the Orient - Central Asia / Caucasus in the focus of science" - 17–21. May, 2010;
Georgian palimpsest manuscripts - 2009–2012 ( Volkswagen Foundation );
Georgian National Corpus - 2012–2014 ( Volkswagen Foundation );

other activities

At the German embassy in Tbilisi

Frankfurt Linguistic Circle

Since 2009, Manana Tandashvili has had optional extra sessions in addition to her scheduled courses on special problems in Kaukasiology. From this series, the Frankfurt Linguistic Circle has developed, which has carried out the following activities, among other things: publication of the book Folia Caucasica, regular lecture series at the universities and colleges in Georgia, summer schools in Batumi, internationalization of Georgian scientists in academic teaching at the Frankfurt University University.

Batumi Summer School

In 2012, Manana Tandashvili, in collaboration with Ramaz Khalvashi, Zakharia Pourtskhvanidze and Lela Samushia, initiated the first summer school at Shota Rustaveli University in Batumi (Georgia), which developed into a long-term project. The focus of the Batumi summer school is primarily on the most modern technologies in corpus linguistics and special problems in kart velology.

Summer School Batumi 2012 on the topic of “Electronic Language Documentation and Kartvelology” in cooperation with the University of Batumi (August 9th - 17th, 2012)
Summer School Batumi 2013 on “Corpus Linguistics and Special Problems of Kartvwelology” in cooperation with the University of Batumi (August 24th - September 1st, 2013)
International workshop “Corpus Linguistics and Kartvelology” with Jost Gippert and Paul Meurer (August 28, 2013).

social commitment

Georgian Cultural Forum V.

In addition to her professional activity in academic teaching as a linguist, Manana Tandaschwili is involved in the socio-cultural life of Frankfurt. In 2005 she founded the “Georgische Kulturforum e. V. “, a Georgian-German society with the aim of promoting Georgian culture and deepening human and cultural contacts and relationships between German and Georgian citizens. In 2008 the Georgische Kulturforum e. V. a cultural program in Frankfurt am Main with picture exhibitions, concerts, theater performances, literary evenings and lectures about Georgia. In 2006 Manana Tandashvili founded a Sunday school for children of Georgian descent in Frankfurt, which she ran until 2013.

Frankfurt Literature Salon EUTERPE

Honorary Citizen of Tbilisi

After holding several literary evenings in 2008 as part of the Georgian Culture Weeks and in 2009 at the Goethe University in Frankfurt and at the Frankfurt Roman Factory , Manana Tandaschwili founded the Frankfurt literature salon EUTERPE. Since 2008 she has organized more than 40 literary evenings in the Roman factory and moderated it together with Zakharia Pourtskhvanidze. In 2011 she founded an association of translators and editors, which is supposed to enable the translators of Georgian literature to organize themselves together and to bundle their capacities in this area. In 2011, Manana Tandashvili was made an honorary citizen of Tbilisi for her commitment in the scientific and socio-cultural fields.

Editor / publisher

Folia Caucasica, 2011, Frankfurt / Tbilisi, Logopress (together with Zakaria Pourtskhvanidze)
Georgian contemporary literature, 2010, Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden (together with Jost Gippert)
Techno der Jaguare (New Storytellers from Georgia), 2012, Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt, Frankfurt a / M (together with Jost Gippert)
Beso Chwedelidze, The Taste of Ashes (short story book), 2013, Literaturverlag Leipzig (together with Jost Gippert)

Web links

Commons : Manana Tandashvili - collection of images, videos and audio files

personal data
SURNAME	Tandashvili, Manana
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Georgian linguist and Caucasus scientist
DATE OF BIRTH	May 22, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH	Tbilisi