Georgian Interest Group

The Georgian language and alphabet is one of the 14 ancient language groups and alphabets in the world, so is the culture and history of the country of Georgia known as Iberia/Iveria of ancient times.

While other languages are grouped under the umbrellas of different initial language groups (e.g. Indo-European, etc.) Georgian was placed independently and, until recently, was the 5th in the list, with the oldest written literature artifact from the 5th century. With recent archeological discovery on Grakliani Mountain, Georgia, though the oldest Georgian written scripts were determined to be of the XI – X BC, i.e. 3500 years old, which makes Georgian the 3rd in the list, after Chinese hieroglyphs and the Cuneiform script.

There are three writing systems/alphabets used to write the Georgian language: Asomtavruli, Nuskhuri and Mkhedruli. Although the systems differ in appearance, all three are unicase, their letters share the same names and alphabetical order, and are written horizontally from left to right. Of the three scripts, Mkhedruli was the civilian royal script of the Kingdom of Georgia mostly used for the royal charters. Mkhedruli is the standard script for the modern Georgian language and its related Kartvelian languages, whereas Asomtavruli and Nuskhuri are used only in religious texts and iconography.

The group will be meeting at least once a month or every other week (depending on the expressed interest) and will have discussions not only on linguistic matters, but also on vital issues for the Country in a regional and global context, inviting speakers on different issues. These meetings will also introduce Georgian culture – art, music, literature, cinema and cuisine.

For more information, please contact Marina Samkharadze.