Languages ​​of Georgia

2014 Census

Native languages ​​in Georgia according to the 2014 census : ^[1]

Native languages ​​around the edges of Georgia according to the census of 2014 : ^[1]

Census 2002

Mother tongue of the country and of certain nationalities according to the census of 2002 : ^[3]

Fluent in another language (except native) according to the 2002 census : ^[3]

The official language of Georgia is Georgian , which is spoken by about 4 million people. It belongs to the group of Caucasian languages and from the 5th century BC. e. uses its own alphabet . Georgian is native to more than 80% of the Georgian population.

Of the other languages ​​of Georgia, it is worth noting that the Megrelian (about 500,000 speakers), Indo-European Armenian (about 450,000 speakers) and Russian (the number of speakers decreased markedly after the collapse of the USSR ), the Turkic Azerbaijani (about 300,000 speakers), belonging to the South Caucasian family, as well as West Caucasian Abkhazian and East Iranian Ossetian (the latter is spoken by about 100,000 people).

Languages ​​of Georgia spoken by 10,000 or more people

• Georgian - 3.2 million, South Caucasian ( Kartvelian );
• Megrelian - 500 thousand, South Caucasian (Kartvelian);
• Armenian - 250 thousand, Indo-European;
• Russian - 60 thousand, Indo-European ( Slavic );
• Azerbaijani - 300 thousand, Turkic;
• Ossetian - 35 thousand, Indo-European, Iranian.
• Abkhazian - 20 thousand, West Caucasian.

23 languages ​​of Georgia belong to six different language families, three of which - South Caucasian, West Caucasian and East Caucasian - are indigenous Caucasian languages . Currently, these three groups are not considered related. The remaining three families - Indo-European , Turkic and Afro - Asian - belong to languages ​​whose carriers moved to the Caucasus later (for example, Armenians settled in the Caucasus as early as the 7th century BC). The following classification describes the relationship between languages ​​and the number of speakers (note: the numbers indicate only the number of speakers in Georgia ; the mark “total” covers both native speakers and those who are fluent in it):

• South Caucasus Group ( Kartvelian ) with a total of 4.5 million speakers in Georgia
  • Kartuli
    • Georgian (kartuli) (3 million speakers, total - 5 million)
      • Dialects: Imereti , Lechkhumi, Gurian , Adjara , Imereti , Kakheti , Ingiloy, Tushino , Khevsur , Mokhev, Pshav, Mtiul, Fereydan, Meskho-Javakheti, the language of Georgian Jews.
  • Chansky
    • Megrelian (500,000)
    • Lazsky (2.000)
  • Svan
    • Svan (15.000)
• West Caucasian group of a total of 20,000 speakers in Georgia
  • Abkhazian
    • Abkhazian (Abkhazians living in Georgia) (20,000) Dialects: Bzybsky, Absuansky, Samurzakansky.
• East Caucasian group for a total of 10,000 speakers in Georgia
  • Nakhish
    • Batishsky (3,500)
    • Chechen (several thousand refugees)
  • Dagestan
    • Avar
      • Lezginsky (about 1,400)
    • Lezginsky
      • Lezgin (4,000)
      • Udinsky (1,000)
• Indo-European group of a total of 700,000 (total - 1.2 million) speakers in Georgia
  • Armenian
    • Armenian (260,000)
  • Iranian
    • Northeastern branch
      • Ossetian (35,000)
    • Northwest branch
      • Kurmanji (40,000)
  • Greek
    • Greek (150,000)
  • Slavic branch
    • Russian (total - 62,000)
    • Ukrainian (total - 50,000)
    • Polish (about 5,000)
• Turkic group A total of 300,000 speakers in Georgia
  • Oguz
    • Azerbaijani (240,000)
    • Urumskiy (50,000)
    • Turkish (Ottoman) (3,000)
  • Kypchak
    • Tatar (3,000)

• Afro-Asian group with a total of only 4,000 carriers in Georgia
  • Semitic branch
    • Aramaic branch
      • Bohtan-Neo Aramaic (about 1,000)
      • Assyrian (East Assyrian) (about 3,000)

The classification is based on the link below.

• Klimov G.A. Introduction to Caucasian Linguistics. M. 1986. - 208 p. (Translated into German: Einführung in die kaukasische Sprachwissenschaft. Hamburg, 1994.) 2nd ed .: Makhachkala: Institute of JALI, 2007. ISBN 5-00-001267-4

• Ernst Kausen: Die Sprachen Georgiens und ihre Klassifikation .
• Enoch R. Language Policy in Georgia
• Sikharulidze T. T. On the synchronous and diachronic aspects of the linguistic situation in Georgia Amirani - T. 14-15. - Montreal - Tbilisi., 2006. - S. 428-438