Swan language
| Swan | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
 Georgia
|
|
| speaker | 15,000-30,000 | |
| Linguistic classification |
||
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
- |
|
| ISO 639 -2 |
cau |
|
| ISO 639-3 | ||
The Swanische (proper name: ლუშნუ ნინ lušnu nin , Georgian სვანური ენა svanuri ena ) is a maximum of at least 15,000, 30,000 people mainly in the region of Svaneti in Georgia speaking, and Western in the Kodori Gorge that the separatist, claimed by Georgia Abkhazia belongs. Svanese speakers also live in other parts of Georgia and abroad. Svanese belongs to the family of the South Caucasian (Cartelian) languages . It is not an official written language , the established written language of the Swans is Georgian to this day and they are traditionally considered a sub-ethnic group of Georgians in Georgia .
Compared to the other South Caucasian languages, it is characterized by a considerably larger number of vowels .
history
In terms of linguistic history, Swanish diverged from the other South Caucasian languages particularly early, around the 19th century BC. Chr.
Toponomastic research has shown for a long time that Swanish was still spoken in ancient times further west to near the coast around Sukhumi , the name of this city is also of Swan origin. This coincides with the information provided by Strabo and Claudius Ptolemy , who at that time stated a larger settlement area for the Swans. From the traditional four tribal groups antique in what is now Abkhazia of Abasgen , Apsilen / Apschilen , Missimianer and Sanigen were the last two time probably still swanischsprachig. The (Latinized) name of the Missimians is related to the current self-designation of the Swans mušwān .
literature
- Heinz Fähnrich (Ed.): Kartwelsprachen . Reichert, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-89500-653-1 .
- Georgij A. Klimov: Introduction to Caucasian Linguistics . Buske, Hamburg 1994 (from the Russian by Jost Gippert), ISBN 3-87548-060-0 .
- Tamaz V. Gamqrelidze , Givi I. Mačavariani: Sonant system and ablaut in the Kartwelsprachen . Narr, Tübingen 1982 (translated from Georgian by Winfried Boeder).
- KH Schmidt: Svan . In: The Indigenous Languages of the Caucasus . Volume 1: Alice C. Harris (Ed.): The Kartvelian Languages . Caravan Books, Delmar NY 1991.
Web links
- Svan. Ethnologue , Languages of the World
- Svan. Omniglot (Swan alphabet and sample text)
- Svan. Armazi Project