Megrelian language

Name options: Mingrelian, Iverian, Eger. Georgian names: მეგრული ენა [megruli ena], outdated: odišuri , iveriuli ena . The Abkhazian name is agyrua byzshәa .

It is traditionally distributed in seven regions of Western Georgia ( Zugdidi , Tsalenjikh , Khobsky , Chkhorotsk , Martvili , Senaksky , western part of Abash ) and the city of Poti , united in the historical region of Megrelia ; as well as in the border regions of Abkhazia ( Galsky and part of Tkvarcheli districts , Ochamchira ). In addition, a significant part of the adult Abkhazian population of the Ochamchir district speaks the Megrelian language to one degree or another. In the extreme east of Megrelia, between the rivers Tskhenistskali and Nogela (east of the Abash and Martville regions), the Megrelian language was completely replaced by Georgian by the beginning of the 20th century .

The exact number of speakers is difficult to determine. About 400 thousand speak Megrelian in the Megrelian Territory (estimate based on census 2002 ^[3] ). A large number of migrants from Megrelia (up to 300-400 thousand) live in other regions of Georgia (especially in the cities of Tbilisi , Kutaisi , Batumi ), but not all of them speak Mingrelian.

According to the 2003 census, Abkhazia was home to 44 thousand megrelians and Georgians (most of them megrelanguageous), including 28919 people in the Galsky district . (99% of the population of the district), in Tkuarchalsky - 8155 people. (55%). Before the Georgian-Abkhaz war, there were many more; Thus, according to the 1989 census, there were 239,872 “Georgians”. (45.7% of the population of Abkhazia) are mainly descendants of settlers from other regions of Georgia in the 1920-1960s. and about a third are megrelanguage.

In Russia , according to the 2010 census, 1,529 people spoke the Mingrelian language.

Of the other Kartvelian languages, it is closest to the Lazian language common in Turkey , with which they form the Zansk group. The time of separation of these languages ​​can be determined lexicostatistically : they have 57% matches in the 100-word base list , which according to the Swadesh-Starostin formula corresponds to the 8th century BC. e.

Previously, Zanian languages ​​occupied a continuous strip of land along the eastern shore of the Black Sea , but then (it’s hard to say exactly when, but no later than the beginning of 2 thousand AD), the middle of this territory was settled by Georgian-speaking people from more eastern regions (possibly Imereti ), which assimilated the local population and gave rise to modern Gurians and Adjars .

Sometimes, especially in Georgia, one may hear the opinion that Mingrelian and Lazian are dialects of the same language, but this point of view is not supported by either structural or sociolinguistic criteria (speakers of these languages ​​lack mutual understanding, a common literary language , and common ethnic self-awareness).

According to the European Center for Minority Issues, there is a tendency among Georgian linguists to consider Megrelian as a dialect of Georgian rather than a language . This reluctance to recognize the Mingrelian language is strongly politically motivated and is based on the fear that such recognition could undermine the unity of Georgians as a nation. In this case, the difference between the dialect and the language becomes critical, since languages ​​have the right to protection under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , and the dialect of the state language does not have this right ^[4] .

Two close dialects of the Megrelian language stand out:

• Senaki (Odish, eastern; self-name: senak'iš ) - distributed in the east of Megrelia (northern basin of the Rioni River) with the center in Senaki ;
• Zugdidi-Samurzakansky (western; self-name: zugidiš-murzaqaniš ) - in the west of Megrelia (with its center in Zugdidi ) and in the Gali district of Abkhazia (historical Samurzakan ); it comprises a jvar dialect in the north of Megrelia along the Inguri River .

The criteria for their selection are mainly phonetic and lexical ; there is no clear border between dialects; there is a good understanding of dialect speakers.

Residents of Samurzakan come from a mixture of Mingrelians and people who switched to Mingrelian Samurzakans , an ethnic group of Abkhazians, still in the middle. Of the 19th century who spoke Abkhazian (in 1926, 10% of the population of Samurzakan still spoke Abkhazian).

The spoken Megrelian language is actively used in Megrelia (a region in the west of Georgia); In Mingrelian many pop works are performed. Language is used mainly as an oral means of communication. As the main literary and written language, Georgian is used, which is owned by the vast majority of native speakers.

Attempts to introduce Cyrillic script for Mingrelians were made in the 1860s. The compiler of the first Megrelian grammar was Russian teacher Mikhail Zavadsky . In 1899, the Mingrel alphabet was published in Tiflis, using the Cyrillic alphabet: A a, B b, C c, D g,, ҕ, D d, E e, F,, џ, Z s, Ӡ ӡ, Һ һ, Ꙋ ꙋ, II, Ӄ ӄ, K k, Ҡ k, L l, M m, N n, O o, Ҧ ҧ, P p, R r, C s, Ꚋ ꚋ, T t, U y, X x, Ts c, Ҵ ҵ, H h, Ꚓ ꚓ, W sh, Ѵ ѵ ^[5] .

From the 1920s, the Georgian alphabet (with a few additional letters) began to be regularly used; several newspapers were published ( Kazakhishi Gazeti (ყაზაყიში გაზეთი), Commune, Samargalosh Chai , Narazenish Chai , Samargalosh Tutuni ). Their release was discontinued in 1938, since then writing was used only in private correspondence. Only in the 1990s. several Mingrelian books were published (mainly dictionaries and poetry collections).

The newspaper Gal (გალი) is currently being published in Abkhazia in the Abkhaz, Russian and Megrelian languages.

The modern Mingrelian alphabet is based on the Georgian letter ^[6] : ა ბ გ დ ე ვ ზ თ ი კ ლ მ ნ ო პ ჟ რ ს ტ უ ფ ქ ღ ყ შ ჩ ც ძ წ ჭ ხ ჯ ჰ ჸ ჷ .

Svan, Georgian and Mingrelian languages ​​come from the Pre-Cartelian language . Svan language in the Caucasian highlands of the Ingur basin and around the upper part of the Tskhenistskali river and the Proto-Georgian-Mingrelian are most likely divided, approx. 2000 BC. Georgian and Mingrelian, most likely, divided approx. 700 BC.

As a result of the centuries-old impact of the Georgian language, the structural changes caused by it affect all levels of the linguistic structure of the Megrelian language. In phonetics , this is the strengthening of the position of the phoneme Q ; in morphology , the appearance of a whole series of allomorphs of affixal morphemes (eg, e- for liability); in syntax , the development of a complex sentence; in vocabulary - a significant replenishment of the vocabulary.

Phonetics and Phonology

The phonemic composition is characterized by the comparative wealth of consonantism with a moderate development of vocalism. In total there are 29 consonant phonemes , 2 vowels , 5 vowels and 1 half-vowel . True long vowels and true diphthongs are absent.

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Note : in cells with three consonants, they are arranged in the following order: deaf / voiced / abusive .

9 cases are distinguished ^[7] . In the syntax, the signs of the nominative system are stronger in comparison with the Georgian language, where the system is ergative .

• Megrelian language / Rostovtsev-Popel A. A. // Great Russian Encyclopedia : [in 35 vols.] / Ch. ed. Yu.S. Osipov . - M .: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 2004—2017.
• Kipshidze I. Grammar of the Mingrelian (Iverian) language with a reader and a dictionary. // Materials on yaphetical linguistics. VII. - SPb., 1914.
• Klimov G.A. Megrelian language // Languages ​​of the world: Caucasian languages. - M., 2001.
• Tsagareli A. Mingrelskie etudes. Vol. I. Mingrelian texts with translations and explanations. Vol. II. Phonetics of the Mingrelian language. - SPb., 1880.
• Beridze S. Megrelian (Iverian) language. Introduction and materials. - Tbilisi, 1920 (load)
• Gudava T. E. Georgian folk literature. Megrelian texts. Poetry. - Tbilisi, 1975 (load.)
• Zhgenti S. M. Phonetics of the Chans-Megrelian language. - Tbilisi, 1953 (load.)
• Chikobava A.S. Grammatical analysis of the Chan (Laz) dialect with texts. - Tbilisi, 1936 (load.)
• Chikobava A.S. Chansko-Megrelian-Georgian Comparative Dictionary. - Tbilisi, 1938 (load.)
• Hubua M. Megrelian texts. - Tbilisi, 1937 (load.)
• Kluge Th. Beiträge zur Mingrelischen Grrmmatik. Memnon (Zeitschrift für die Kunst- und Kultur-geschichte des Alten Orients). T. VII, H. 1-2. 1913.
• Laurence Broers (2004), Containing the Nation, Building the State - Coping with Nationalism, Minorities, and Conflict in Post-Soviet Georgia.

• Marr N. Grammar of the Mingrelian language (inaccessible link)
• Megrelian language in the TITUS project
• Megrelian-Georgian Dictionary of Otar Kajai (TITUS)
• Megrell Project at Lund University ( Sweden )
• ნანაში ნინა - Mingrelian alphabet book 2002
• Kartvelian languages (Zurab Sardzhveladze)
• Two sons of one mother ': Georgian, Mingrelian and the challenge of nested primordialisms (chapter 7 of book by L. Broers above).