Mingrelian language

Mingrelian
მარგალური ნინა margaluri nina
Native to	Georgia
Region	Samegrelo, Abkhazia
Ethnicity	Georgians
Native speakers	344,000 (2015)[1]
Language family	Kartvelian Karto-Zan Zan Mingrelian
Writing system	Georgian script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xmf
Glottolog	ming1252
ELP	Mingrelian

Mingrelian or Megrelian (მარგალური ნინა, margaluri nina) is a Kartvelian language spoken in Western Georgia (regions of Samegrelo and Abkhazia), primarily by the Mingrelians. The language was also called Iverian (Georgian iveriuli ena) in the early 20th century. Mingrelian has historically been only a regional language within the boundaries of historical Georgian states and then modern Georgia, and the number of younger people speaking it has decreased substantially, with UNESCO designating it as a "definitely endangered language".^[2]

Distribution and status[]

No reliable figure exists for the number of native speakers of Mingrelian, but it is estimated to be between 300,000 and 500,000. Most speakers live in the Samegrelo (Mingrelia) region of Georgia, which comprises the and the Kolkheti Lowlands, from the Black Sea coast to the Svan Mountains and the Tskhenistskali River. Smaller enclaves existed in Abkhazia,^[3] but the ongoing civil unrest there has displaced many Mingrelian speakers to other regions of Georgia. Their geographical distribution is relatively compact, which has helped to promote the transmission of the language between generations.

Mingrelian is generally written in the Georgian alphabet, but it has no written standard or official status. Almost all speakers are bilingual; they use Mingrelian mainly for familiar and informal conversation, and Georgian (or, for expatriate speakers, the local official language) for other purposes.

History[]

Mingrelian is one of the Kartvelian languages. It is closely related to Laz, from which it has become differentiated mostly in the past 500 years, after the northern (Mingrelian) and southern (Laz) communities were separated by Turkic invasions. It is somewhat less closely related to Georgian, the two branches having separated in the first millennium BC or earlier, and even more distantly related to Svan, which is believed to have branched off in the 2nd millennium BC or earlier.^[4] Mingrelian is not mutually intelligible with any of those other languages, although it is said that its speakers can recognize many Laz words.

Some linguists refer to Mingrelian and Laz as Zan languages.^[5] Zan had already split into Mingrelian and Laz variants by early modern times, however, and it is not customary to speak of a unified Zan language today.

The oldest surviving texts in Mingrelian date from the 19th century, and are mainly items of ethnographical literature. The earliest linguistic studies of Mingrelian include a phonetic analysis by (1880), and grammars by (1914) and (1920). From 1930 to 1938 several newspapers were published in Mingrelian, such as , , , , and . More recently, there has been some revival of the language, with the publication of a Mingrelian–Georgian dictionary by , a Mingrelian-German dictionary by Otar Kajaia and , and books of poems by , , , , Giorgi Sichinava, , and , as well as books and magazines published by Jehovah's Witnesses.^[6]

Phonology[]

Vowels[]

Mingrelian has five primary vowels a, e, i, o, u. The Zugdidi-Samurzaqano dialect has a sixth, ə, which is the result of reduction of i and u.

Mingrelian vowels

	Front	Back
		unrounded	rounded
High	i [i] ი	(ə [ə]) ჷ	u [u] უ
Mid	e [ɛ] ე		o [ɔ] ო
Low		a [ɑ] ა

Consonants[]

The consonant inventory of Mingrelian is almost identical to that of Laz, Georgian, and Svan.

Mingrelian consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m [m] მ	n [n] ნ
Plosive	voiced	b [b] ბ	d [d] დ		g [ɡ] გ
	aspirated	p [pʰ] ფ	t [tʰ] თ		k [kʰ] ქ
	ejective	p̌ [pʼ] პ	ţ [tʼ] ტ		ǩ [kʼ] კ	qʼ [qʼ] ყ	ɔ [ʔ] ჸ
Affricate	voiced		ž [d͡z] ძ	dj [d͡ʒ] ჯ
	aspirated		ʒ [t͡sʰ] ც	ç [t͡ʃʰ] ჩ
	ejective		ǯ [t͡sʼ] წ	č [t͡ʃʼ] ჭ
Fricative	voiced	v [v] ვ	z [z] ზ	j [ʒ] ჟ	ɣ [ɣ] ღ
	voiceless		s [s] ს	ş [ʃ] შ	x [x] ხ		h [h] ჰ
Trill				r [r] რ
Approximant	central			y [j] ჲ
	lateral		l [l] ლ

Phonetic processes[]

Vowel reduction[]

Certain pairs of vowels reduce to single vowels:^{[clarification needed]}

• ae and ai → ee → e
• ao, oa and oo → aa → a
• ou → uu → u

In Zugdidi-Samurzaqano dialect the vowels i and u also often reduce to ə.

Pre-consonant change of velar g[]

Before consonants, g → r.

Positional change of uvular q' sound[]

In word-initial prevocalic and intervocalic positions, q' → ʔ. Before the consonant v, q' → ɔ/ǩ.

Regressive assimilation of consonants[]

The common types are:

• voicing/devoicing of voiceless/voiced consonants before voiced/voiceless ones (respectively).
• glottalization of consonants before the glottalized ones and the glottal stop.

Progressive dissimilation[]

If the stem contains r then the suffixes -ar and -ur transform to -al and -ul, e.g. xorga (Khorga, the village)→ xorg-ul-i ("Khorgan"). The rule is not valid if in the stem with r an l appears later, e.g. marṭvili ("Martvili", the town) → marṭvil-ur-i (adj. "Martvilian")

In a stem with voiceless affricates or voiceless sibilants, a later ǯ is deaffricated to d, e.g. orcxonǯi → orcxondi "comb", č'anǯi → č'andi "fly (insect)", isinǯi → isindi "arrow", etc.

The transformation of l[]

• in all dialects of Mingrelian, before consonants l → r.
• in the Martvili subdialect in word-initial prevocalic position, l → y → ∅ and in intervocalic position l → ∅^{[further explanation needed]}

Intervocalic deletion of v[]

Between the vowels the organic^{[clarification needed]} v disappears, e.g. xvavi (Geo. "abundance, plenty") → *xvai → xvee (id.), mṭevani (Geo. "raceme") → ţiani (id.), etc.

Phonetic augmentation n[]

Before the stops and affricates, an inorganic^{[clarification needed]} augmentation n may appear (before labials n → m).

Alphabet[]

Mingrelian is written in the Mkhedruli script.

Mkhedruli	Transliteration	IPA transcription
ა	a	ɑ
ბ	b	b
გ	g	ɡ
დ	d	d
ე	e	ɛ
ვ	v	v
ზ	z	z
თ	t	t
ი	i	i
კ	ǩ	kʼ
ლ	l	l
მ	m	m
ნ	n	n
ჲ	y	j
ო	o	ɔ
პ	p̌	pʼ
ჟ	ⱬ	ʒ
რ	r	r
ს	s	s
ტ	t̆	tʼ
უ	u	u
ჷ	ƨ	ə
ფ	p	p
ქ	k	k
ღ	ɣ	ɣ
ყ	q'	qʼ
ჸ	ꞇ	ʔ
შ	ş	ʃ
ჩ	ç	t͡ʃ
ც	ts / ʒ	t͡s
ძ	ž	d͡z
წ	tz / ǯ	t͡sʼ
ჭ	ç̌	t͡ʃʼ
ხ	x	x
ჯ	j	d͡ʒ
ჰ	h	h

Grammar[]

Dialects[]

The main dialects and subdialects of Mingrelian are:

• Zugdidi-Samurzakano or Northwest dialect
  • Dzhvari
• Senaki or Southeast dialect
  • Martvili-Bandza
  • Abasha

Mingrelian edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Famous speakers[]

• Lavrenti Beria, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's chief of secret police
• Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, one of the most influential Georgian writers of the 20th century
• Zviad Gamsakhurdia, first president of post-Soviet Georgia
• Antisa Khvichava, claimed world's oldest person (purportedly 132 years old at the time of her death in 2012).^[7]

References[]

• (1880), Megrelskie Etiudi, Analiz Fonetiki Megrelskogo Yazika ("Megrelian Studies — The Analysis of Phonetics of Megrelian Language"). (in Russian)
• (1914), Grammatika Mingrel’skogo (Iverskogo) Jazyka ("Grammar of Megrelian (Iverian) Language"). (in Russian)
• (1920), Megruli (Iveriuli) Ena ("Megrelian (Iverian) Language"). (in Georgian)
• Rusudan Amirejibi-Mullen, Nana Danelia and Inga Dundua (2006), kolkhuri (megrul-lazuri) ena (Tbilisi: Universali).
• (2012),"'Two Sons of One Mother'. Nested Identities and Centre-Periphery Politics in Post-Soviet Georgia". In Andreas Schonle, Olga Makarova and Jeremy Hicks (eds.), When the Elephant Broke Out of the Zoo. A Festschrift for Donald Rayfield (Stanford Slavic Studies, Volume 39).
• Otar Kajaia (2001-2002), Georgian-Mingrelian dictionary.
• Alio Kobalia (2010), Georgian-Mingrelian dictionary.

External links[]

• TITUS Caucasica: Megrelisch (in German)
• Otar Kajaia's Megrelian-Georgian dictionary at TITUS.
• Megrelian Project at Lund University, Sweden
• Article on the situation in 2017 from OpenDemocracy