In my previous post about Georgian language I promised to cover some article on Georgian script and here you go. A very interesting note to em bold on Georgian script - there are actually three Georgian scripts - Asomtavruli, Nuskhuri and Mkhedruli. Although all of them is used for written Georgian language, Mkheruli is taken as the standard for Georgian.Need to translate from Georgian script? Request a free quote!According to Wikipedia the scripts originally had 38 letters. Georgian is currently written in a 33-letter alphabet, as five of the letters are obsolete in that language. The Mingrelian alphabet uses 36: the 33 of Georgian, one letter obsolete for that language, and two additional letters specific to Mingrelian and Svan. That same obsolete letter, plus a letter borrowed from Greek, are used in the 35-letter Laz alphabet. The fourth Kartvelian language, Svan, is not commonly written, but when it is it uses the letters of the Mingrelian alphabet, with an additional obsolete Georgian letter and sometimes supplemented by diacritics for its many vowels.Georgian scripts hold the national status of cultural heritage in Georgia and is currently nominated for inclusion in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists.The first version of the script attested is Asomtavruli; the other scripts were formed in the following centuries. Most scholars link the creation of the Georgian alphabet to the process of Christianisation of a core Georgian-speaking territory, that is, Kartli (or Iberia in Classical sources).The alphabet was therefore most probably created between the conversion of Iberia under Mirian III (326 or 337) and the Bir El Qutt inscriptions of 430,contemporaneously with the Armenian alphabet. It was first used for translation of the Bible and other Christian literature into Georgian, by monks in Georgia and Palestine.A point of contention among scholars is the role played by Armenian clerics in that process. According to a number of scholars and medieval Armenian sources, Mesrop Mashtots, generally acknowledged as the creator of the Armenian alphabet, also created the Georgian and Caucasian Albanian alphabets. This tradition originates in the works of Koryun, a fifth century historian and biographer of Mashtots, and has been quoted in some Western sources, but has been criticized by scholars, both Georgian and Western, who judge the passage in Koryun unreliable or even a later interpolation. Other scholars quote Koryun's claims without taking a stance on its validity. Many agree, however, that Armenian clerics, if not Mashtots himself, must have played a role in the creation of the Georgian script.Need to translate from Georgian script? Request a free quote!
