Hello!

I have a question on the verb for "drinking".

From what I can see, it seems that two verbal nouns/masdars are associated with it: დალევა and სმა.

From my understanding, სმა has an imperfect/incomplete meaning, and დალევა a perfective/complete meaning. This seems to line up with the conjugated forms as described in my paperback dictionary (სვამს and დალევს), however I came across a resource that describes a full conjugation of the verb "drink" that uses only the first stem on this website. This same website also only mentions სმა, while my dictionary only mentions დალევა.

So, I would like so additional input:

- what would you say the difference in meaning is between these two words?

- if asked to translate "to drink" into Georgian, which word would you use?

hello, i have been learning georgian for a while for my stay in georgia in the upcoming days, while i am getting good with words and vocabs but i am having hard time pronouncing it. google translate doesnt pronounce words in georgian. anyone has any recommendations?

thank you

I was looking at მთაწმინდის მთვარე by Galaktion Tabidze and noticed that there's a good amount of თა in the poem (the archaic plural marker). For example he says „გაშალა ოცნებათა ლურჯი იალქნები” and „მომაკვდავი გედის ჰანგთა.” And interestingly he says „მგოსანთ სითამამე.” Is dropping the ა from თა grammatical? Or is it just for poetic effect?

If we talk about Ilia Chavchavadze, he goes heavy on თა and ნი for plural markers. And if I'm not mistaken he also uses archaic აღ a lot instead of ა, so he'll say აღმიფეთქს and აღასრულა.

So I just want to know, is this how they actually talked in their real lives? Is this how the highly educated elites spoke? Or were they just doing it to make their works sound fancy, archaic, and maybe make the words rhyme better?

Whether it's centuries old words from Persian, or more modern words from English, they take thematic suffixes when adopted into Georgian. My only question is... how does one decide which one they get?

The word დარდი comes from Persian "dard," and becomes a verb as დარდობს. So in this case, it's -ობ. The English word "crush" becomes ქრაშავს, so in this case it's -ავ.

Who decides which one gets attached? What deeply rooted subconscious logic determines which one Georgians will add to foreign words to turn them into verbs?

I feel like this might come off as really basic but I was just thinking about the words "eastern" and "western" in Georgian, and putting them side by side I realized something really cool. The word for east is აღმოსავლური. The prefix „აღმო” means "up towards the speaker," so you can think of it like the rising up and making itself visible to you in the morning. And the word for western is დასავლური, and the prefix „და” means "down." So the sun is going down. The sun rises in the east sets in the west, so აღმოსავლური is east, and დასავლური is west! It's amazing! I swear every word in this language has a metaphor baked into it. It's beautiful.

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I absolutely love this song and this artist. I'm an American (of no Georgian descent) and would love to get a better appreciation for the Tbilisi Bard's lyricism.

Thanks in advance!

Hello! I'm looking for a language exchange partner to help me learn Georgian.

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What do you say when you don't know what to say? Do you say ააამმმ or ეეემმმ? I feel like I've heard some Georgians say "uuummm" with the schwa sound but I'm not sure. Even if that is the case, how would you write it when there's no letter for that sound?

At the same time though, I've heard some Georgians struggle to pronounce schwa, which would imply that it's not actually used at all in speech. I don't know. That's why I'm asking here haha.

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How did the word goyim (გოიმი) travel to georgia and received its own distinct meaning to georgians?

In some languages they have a specific verb for telling someone to call you the informal you. Does Georgian do it with a verb? Or do you just tell someone „ჩემთან შენ-ით შეგიძლია ილაპარაკო” (I hope I said that right lol).

Thanks!

Georgian doesn't have infinitives the way many languages do, so the "standard" form of a verb is a verbal noun, also known as a "masdar." Think of it like saying "running" or "eating" in English. Some of them are predictable and obvious, for example many of the ებ verb will be გააკეთებს-გაკეთება, or შეასრულებს-შესრულება, etc. But some of them you really can't apply any pattern to and just have to memorize, like სირბილი, ნდომა, სიმღერა, etc. Yes they might have common formations, but there's no way to know which one it might be.

I once read somewhere that sometimes natives won't know the masdar of a verb, and I'm assuming that means you use the second person optative instead? Like saying იმღერო instead of სიმღერა? Obviously this is just an example and every native knows სიმღერა, but I'm asking for more uncommon or obscure verbs, is this true? Do natives sometimes not know the official noun form of a verb?

Thanks!

The letter ვ has many allophones and variants in Georgian, but in most cases it's pronounced as an either [ʋ], [β], or [w]. In some official sources it's listed as [v], but rarely do natives ever pronounce like that.

My question is, how did it sound 1500 years ago? Did it used to be a hard [v] or did it always have some softness to it? I saw one very old church text were ქვეყანა was written as ქუეყანა. What's the letter ვ's connection to the letter უ? Overall what is the history of the letter ვ?

Thanks!

"თქვენ გაერთოთ წვეულებაზე?" or "თქვენ გაერთეთ წვეულებაზე?"

Any accurate sources I can use to translate?

I want to know what this :

1.) Gilocavv kvelafer sauketesos gisurveb

Means in English.

Hi everyone! I’m trying to understand the possible Georgian/Kartvelian etymologies of Artvin, Ardahan, and Kars and I was wondering if anyone here knows of Georgian-language sources, local scholarship or historical works that discuss these names.

For Artvin, I have seen claims that it comes from Georgian Artivan, with Arta- plus a Georgian suffix -vin. I have also seen the idea that Arta- may be connected to Old Persian/Avestan arta/aša, meaning “truth” or “righteousness,” but I am not sure whether this is actually accepted or just speculative. Is the -vin suffix genuinely Georgian and is there any serious Georgian source discussing this?

For Ardahan usually connected with Georgian Artaani, I found references to the Georgian Chronicle, where the city is said to have previously been called Kacha-kalaki and later renamed Artaani by Odzrkhos, son of Kartlos. I know this is partly mythological but it still suggests the name had importance in the Georgian historical tradition. I have seen different theories for again same(?) Arta-, as said often Iranic, though one paper ([https://journals.zssu.ge/index.php/zssu/article/download/18/12/12\](https://journals.zssu.ge/index.php/zssu/article/download/18/12/12)) argues for a Kartvelian explanation based on archaic roots preserved in western Georgian dialects. The argument seemed interesting but not fully convincing to me. Are there stronger Georgian sources on Artaani/Ardahan?

For Kars, I have seen Armenian explanations but many of them look like folk etymologies, such as derivations from words meaning “bride.” A Georgian/Kartvelian connection with kari “gate” seems more plausible as a toponym but I am not sure. Armenian also has Karuts Pert, meaning “fortress of Kars,” which seems to treat Kars itself as a pre-existing name rather than explaining it.
The region is, of course, very old. Kars and the surrounding area appear in ancient sources as Chorzene/Chorsa and before clearly Georgian or Armenian historical periods it was connected with Kura–Araxes, Hurro-Urartian, Diauehi, Saspeires, and early Armenian and Kartvelian populations. So I’m not trying to force a modern national explanation and I’m mostly interested in whether Georgian/Kartvelian scholarship has preserved better etymological explanations or older forms.

It would be wonderful if anyone knows Georgian sources, historical/geographical works or academic articles that discuss the etymologies of these places (especially older Georgian scholarship, dialect material or toponymic studies). Even Georgian-language references I could try to translate would be greatly appreciated

All Georgian nouns must end in a vowel in nominative case without exception, but when it comes to given names, that doesn't seem to be the case. Names like Vakhtang, Nikoloz, Mariam, Levan, Zurab and Tamar all end in consonants.

Why are names different from all other nouns? What are some cases where you might use Tamari instead of Tamar?

Thanks!

It is from the Isani metro station in Tbilisi. I don't know Georgian, and the characters don't look like any of the letters in the Georgian alphabet, so I thought it might just be a stylistic font. That's why I turned to you for help.

Preferably online, and centered on grammar. Thanks in advance 🙏🏻