GEORGIAN ALPHABET

The 'Georgian alphabet' is the script currently used to write the Georgian language and other Kartvelian languages (such as Mingrelian), and occasionally other languages of the Caucasus (such as Ossetic and Abkhaz in the 1940s). [1]
The modern alphabet has thirty-three letters. Originally it had more, but some letters (shaded cells in the tables below) have become obsolete.

Letters

ა

ბ

გ

დ

ე

ვ

ზ

ჱ

თ

ი

კ

ლ

მ

ნ

ჲ

ო

პ

ჟ

რ

ს

ტ

ჳ

უ

ფ

ქ

ღ

ყ

შ

ჩ

ც

ძ

წ

ჭ

ხ

ჴ

ჯ

ჰ

ჵ

ჶ

The Georgian script makes no distinction between upper and lower case. However, certain modern writers have experimented with using ''Asomtavruli'' letters (see below) as capitals.

''Asomtavruli'' (Capital) Letters

Contents

History of the alphabet

Transcription

See also

References

External links

History of the alphabet

The oldest uncontroversial examples of Georgian writing are an ''asomtavruli'' inscription in a church in Bethlehem from 430 AD. Gamkrelidze 1990 (''Alphabetic Writing and the Old Georgian script'') argues that it must have followed the advent of Christianity in Georgia (''c.'' 327 AD), and that the forms of the letters are freely invented in imitation of the Greek model.
Georgian historical tradition attributes the invention of the Georgian alphabet to Parnavaz I of Iberia in the 3rd century BC.
The Asomtavruli alphabet is known also as ''Mrgvlovani'' ("rounded"). Examples of it are still preserved in monumental inscriptions, such as those of the Georgian church in Bethlehem (near Jerusalem, 430) and the church of Bolnisi Sioni near Tbilisi (4th-5th centuries). Older Asomtavruli inscriptions have been claimed to date from pre-Christian times, the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century. These were found in Armaztsikhe (near Mtskheta) and Nekresi (in the Kakheti region of Eastern Georgia), in 1940 and 1995–2003 by the scientific expeditions of Simon Janashia (1900-1947) and Levan Chilashvili [2]. The inscriptions from Armaztsikhe were investigated by Pavle Ingorokva.
The ''Nuskhuri'' ("minuscule") or ''Kutkhovani'' ("squared") script first appeared in the ninth century. Asomtavruli and Nuskhuri, collectively known as ''Khutsuri'' (ხუცური, or "church script"), were used together to write religious manuscripts, with the Asomtavruli serving as capital letters.
The modern alphabet, called ''Mkhedruli'' (მხედრული, "secular" or "military writing"), first appeared in the eleventh century. It was used for non-religious purposes up until the eighteenth century, when it completely replaced Khutsuri. Georgian language has phonemic orthography.
A number of different traditions explain the origin of the Georgian alphabet, including an Armenian tradition attributing it to Saint Mesrop, who is said to have invented the Armenian alphabet, but none seems to have much currency.^[1]

Transcription

Letters	Unicode	Name	ISO 9984	BGN	IPA
ა	U+10D0	an	A a	А а
ბ	U+10D1	ban	B b	B b
გ	U+10D2	gan	G g	G g
დ	U+10D3	don	D d	D d
ე	U+10D4	en	E e	E e
ვ	U+10D5	vin	V v	V v
ზ	U+10D6	zen	Z z	Z z
თ	U+10D7	tan	T t	T t
ი	U+10D8	in	I i	I i
კ	U+10D9	k’an	K’ k’	K’ k’
ლ	U+10DA	las	L l	L l
მ	U+10DB	man	M m	M m
ნ	U+10DC	nar	N n	N n
ო	U+10DD	on	O o	O o
პ	U+10DE	par	P’ p’	P’ p’
ჟ	U+10DF	žan	Ž ž	Zh zh
რ	U+10E0	rae	R r	R r
ს	U+10E1	san	S s	S s
ტ	U+10E2	t’ar	T’ T’	T’ T’
უ	U+10E3	un	U u	U u
ფ	U+10E4	par	P p	P p
ქ	U+10E5	kan	K k	K k
ღ	U+10E6	ɣan	Ɣ ɣ	Gh gh
ყ	U+10E7	q’ar	Q’ q’	Q’ q’
შ	U+10E8	šin	Š š	Sh sh
ჩ	U+10E9	čin	Č č	Ch ch
ც	U+10EA	can	C c	Ts ts
ძ	U+10EB	ʒil	Ʒ ʒ	Dz dz
წ	U+10EC	c’il	C’ c’	Ts’ ts’
ჭ	U+10ED	č’ar	Č’ č’	Ch’ ch’
ხ	U+10EE	xan	X x	Kh kh
ჯ	U+10EF	ǯan	Ǯ ǯ	J j
ჰ	U+10F0	hae	H h	H h

See also

★ Georgian national system of romanization

★ ISO 9984

★ BGN/PCGN romanization

★ Genealogy of scripts derived from Proto-Sinaitic

★ History of the alphabet

References

1. Unicode Demystified: A Practical Programmer's Guide to the Encoding Standard - Page 251

External links

★ Georgian Website / Portal with info on Georgian culture and language

★ Direct transliteration latin ↔ georgian

★ Georgian fonts, compliant with Unicode 4.0, also available for MAC OS 9 or X

★