Georgian alphabet

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Georgian alphabet
Font alphabet
languages Georgian a . a.
Usage time since about AD 430
ancestry Protosinaitic script
 →  Phoenician script
  →  Aramaic script
   →  Georgian alphabet
Unicode block U + 10A0 – U + 10FC (Mchedruli and Assomtawruli)
U + 2D00 – U + 2D25 (Nuschuri)
ISO 15924 Geor (Mchedruli)
Geok (Chuzuri = Assomtawruli + Nuschuri)
Font sample

The Georgian alphabet ( Georgian : ქართული ანბანი kartuli anbani , IPA : [kʰɑrtʰʊɫɪ ɑnbɑnɪ] ) is an alphabet that comprises 33 letters for the Georgian language , each of which corresponds to exactly one phoneme . Georgian has a long tradition as a written and literary language . In addition, the Georgian alphabet was or is used for other languages: Ossetian (officially 1937-1954), Abkhazian (officially 1938-1954), furthermore - with additional letters - sometimes for Mingrelian , Swan and Lasisch . In the past, the letters were also used as numerals (see Georgian calendar ).

sequence

The order of the letters in the alphabet corresponds to the order of the Greek alphabet , although the letters are not variations of the Greek script . At the end of the Georgian alphabet there are all sounds that have no equivalent in ancient Greek .

The Georgian script is written from left to right.

history

prehistory

Georgian Assomtawruli -Inschrift of 430 n. Chr.
Nuschuri manuscript from the 10th century with initials from Assomtawruli letters at the beginning of the sentence.

The oldest known script in Georgia is the Armas script , but only inscriptions in Aramaic have survived. Whether it is a forerunner of the Georgian script or both were formed equally from the Aramaic script is controversial.

The introduction of the Georgian alphabet is given to Parnawas I , king of Iberia , in the 3rd century BC. Attributed to Chr. (284 BC). It is believed by today's scientists that the Georgian alphabet evolved from the Aramaic script at the beginning of the 5th century under Greek influence . The oldest historical evidence of Georgian writing was found in 1950 in a Georgian monastery in Bethlehem ( Palestine , approx. 430 AD) and in the Bolnissi Sioni monastery ( Georgia , approx. 480 AD). A few years ago further evidence was found in the Armaszikhe fortress in Mtskheta and in the Nekressi Church ( Kakheti ). Georgian scientists date the finds to pre-Christian times.

Stages of development of the Georgian script

Georgian writing has undergone significant changes since the 5th century. There are three stages of development of the Georgian script: Assomtawruli (Mrglowani) , Nuschuri (Kutchowani) and Mchedruli .

  • Assomtawruli (capital letters; ასომთავრული [asɔmt̪ʰavɾʊlɪ] from Georgian: ასო [asɔ] (letter) + მთავრული [mt̪ʰavɾʊlɪ] (Mtawruli = small caps / capital letters / capitals )): In the 5th to 9th centuries, the documents ( manuscripts , inscriptions ) written in Assomtavruli script. The alternative name Mrglowani (circular) was created back then because of the round shape of the letters. Assomtavruli was the only script until the 9th century. They are also called simply Mtawruli (Georgian: მთავრული, main / capital) or Mrglowani (Georgian: მრგლოვანი [mrgɫɔvanɪ], circular).
  • Nuschuri (Georgian: ნუსხური [nʊsxʊɾɪ] (ასო [asɔ]), = list font, because it was developed as an italic fontfor non-representative purposes): the Nuschuri , which occurs as early as the 9th century and was predominant in the 10th to 11th centuries, replaced the Assomtavruli . The Nuschuri letters basically have an angular shape, which is why they are sometimes called Kutchowani (corner script). The script developed from the Assomtavruli .
  • Mchedruli (Georgian: მხედრული [mxɛd̪ɾʊlɪ], knight (script), originated in the nobility): the Mchedruli originated in the 11th century. It developed from Nuschuri by rounding off the angular letters. The script slowly changed and took on its current form. Mchedruli is the most dominant form of Georgian script in everyday life today. It has no difference between capital letters (uppercase) and lowercase letters ( minuscule ).

Assomtavruli did not disappear when the nushuri arose. The Nuschuri was not forgotten in the 11th century when the Mchedruli script developed from it. These fonts were used in parallel until the 18th century. The Assomtawruli ( Mrglowani or Mtawruli ) were used for inscriptions (on stones) and book titles or one wrote with Assomtawruli the capital letters in the books that were written with Nuschuri . The nuschuri was used for the most part for church literature. When secular Georgian literature switched to the new ( Mchedruli ) script in the 11th century , two expressions emerged: Chuzuri and Mchedruli . With Chuzuri (Priestly, as used in the church) it was thought that used in church practice Assomtawruli / Mrglowani - and Nuschuri / Kutchowani fonts, and Mchedruli the new letters that were intended for secular use.

Georgian , Armenian and Alvanian were at times the only South Caucasian languages ​​with their own writing system.

Asomtavruli letter მ. Png Asomtavruli letter ნ (n) .png
decorative Assomtavruli letters:
(m) and (n), 12th century
Mokvis saxareba - Mates saxareba.png
Title of the Gospel according to Matthew in decorative Assomtawruli

Currently used: The Mchedruli

Today's Mchedruli ( Georg . მხედრული , knight script , from Mchedari = knight , rider) consists of 33 letters (28 consonants and 5 vowel characters ) and does not distinguish between lowercase and uppercase letters. Exactly one letter is assigned to each phoneme .

Mchedrulis Mtawruli (georg. მხედრულის მთავრული) is a font style of Mchedruli in which all letters have the same height. It was developed by Nikolos Tbileli in 1728.

Mchedruli

Transcription

The following table shows the characters, their Unicode , their name and various transcriptions. The 10 no longer used letters are in brackets. In the fourth column is the national system of the Georgian Academy of Sciences . It has been used in driving licenses since 1998 and was adopted by the Office of Geodesy and Cartography in 2002. The fifth column contains the ISO 9984: 1996 standard, the sixth the DIN 32707: 2010-01 standard and the seventh a German transcription based on other conventions for transcribing non-Latin scripts (e.g. Cyrillic ) and leads to the spelling of Georgian names as they are commonly used in German-language media.

For the correspondence in the two older Georgian scripts, see the table in the article Chuzuri .

Georgian Mchedruli letter Unicode Surname Georgian system ISO 9984: 1996 standard Standard DIN 32707: 2010-01 German transcription Note on pronunciation
U + 10D0 On A a A a A a A a [⁠ ɑ ⁠]
U + 10D1 Ban B b B b B b B b [⁠ b ⁠]
U + 10D2 Gan G g G g G g G g [⁠ ɡ ⁠]
U + 10D3 Don D d D d D d D d [⁠ d ⁠]
U + 10D4 En E e E e E e E e [⁠ ɛ ⁠] as e at "B e tt"
U + 10D5 Vin V v V v V v W w [⁠ v ⁠] as W at " W ahl"
U + 10D6 Zen Z z Z z Z z S s [⁠ for ⁠] , as in " S egel"
( ) U + 10F1   Ē ē Ê ê   [ ɛj ]
U + 10D7 T̕an T t T 't' T̕ t̕ T t [ T ], T behauchtes as " T ÜR"
U + 10D8 In I i I i I i I i [⁠ ɪ ⁠] , i as in "m i t"
U + 10D9 Can K 'k' K k K k K k [ ], ejective K
U + 10DA read L l L l L l L l [⁠ ɫ ⁠] , as in Russian ( "dark L")
U + 10DB Man M m M m M m M m [⁠ m ⁠]
U + 10DC Nar N n N n N n N n [⁠ n ⁠]
( ) U + 10F2 Hye   Y y Y y   [⁠ j ⁠]
U + 10DD On O o O o O o O o [⁠ ɔ ⁠] , such as o at "v o n"
U + 10DE par P 'p' P p P p P p [ ], ejective P
U + 10DF Žan Zh zh Ž ž Ž ž Sh sh [⁠ ʒ ⁠] , as in "Gara g e"
U + 10E0 Rae R r R r R r R r [⁠ r ⁠] , rolled tongue tips-R
U + 10E1 San S s S s S s S s (ss) 1 [⁠ s ⁠] , such as s at "i s t"
U + 10E2 Tar T 't' T t T t T t [ ], ejective T
( ) U + 10F3 How   W w W w   [ wi ]
U + 10E3 U.N U u U u U u U u [⁠ ʊ ⁠] how u at "B u tter"
U + 10E4 Par P p P 'p' P̕ p̕ P p [ ], breathy P as in " P ech"
U + 10E5 Kan K k K 'k' K̕ k̕ K k [ ], breathy K as in " K anu"
U + 10E6 Ġan Gh gh Ḡ ḡ Ġ ġ Gh gh [⁠ ɣ ⁠] , similar to R in " R ose"
U + 10E7 Qar Q 'q' Q q Q q Q q [ ], ejective larynx sound between ღ and ხ
U + 10E8 Šin Sh sh Š š Š š Sh sh [⁠ ʃ ⁠]
U + 10E9 Č̕in Ch ch Č 'č' Č̕ č̕ Tsch Tsch [ tʃʰ ], breathy Tsch as in " Tsch eche"
U + 10EA C̕an Ts ts C 'c' C̕ c̕ Z z [ tsʰ ], breathy Ts like Z in " Z one"
U + 10EB Jil Dz dz J j J j Ds ds [⁠ dz ⁠] to, voiced affricate in opposition z : ც / [ Ts ] and წ / [ ts' ]
U + 10EC Cil Ts 'ts' C c C c Z z [ tsʼ ], ejective Ts (short)
U + 10ED Čar Ch 'ch' Č č Č č Tsch Tsch [ tʃʼ ], ejective Tsch (short)
U + 10EE Xan Kh kh X x X x Ch ch [⁠ x ⁠] , similar to ch at "A ch tung"
( ) U + 10F4 Q̕ar   H̱ ẖ Q̕ q̕   [⁠ q ⁠]
U + 10EF Jan J j J̌ ǰ J̌ ǰ Dsch dsch [⁠ ⁠] , "as in Dsch ungel"
U + 10F0 Hae H h H h H h H h [⁠ h ⁠]
( ) U + 10F5 Hôe   Ō ō Ô ô   [⁠ o ⁠]
( ) U + 10F6 Fi   F f F f   [⁠ f ⁠]
( ) U + 10F7 Šva     Ẹ ẹ   [⁠ ə ⁠] , as in "g e says"
( ) U + 10F8 Elifi     ʼ   [⁠ ʔ ⁠] , glottal stop as in "See " eagle "
  1. Between two vowels, the voiceless ს is circumscribed as ss .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Georgian alphabet  - collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Omniglot: Georgian alphabet ; ISO / IEC JTC1 / SC2 / WG2 N1962 (PDF; 237 kB).
  2. ^ Pre-Christian Georgian inscriptions from Nekresi (Georgian; PDF; 410 kB).
  3. S. a. Heinz Fähnrich : Grammar of the old Georgian language. Hamburg 1994, p. 1.
  4. Shukia Apridonidze, Levan Chkhaidze: From Georgian and into Georgian. Transliteration of Georgian Alphabet. ( Memento from June 4, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
  5. Peeter Päll: Romanization of Georgian. Implementation of the national system. 2006.
  6. Adopts and supplements Annex 5, Table 7 of the RAK-WB (1983) = rules of practice for § 110.4 of the RSWK .