Syncope

[Mag.Ludi]

Syncope or not syncope, that is the question.

I try to summarize what I have found on several homepages and in my only Georgian textbook: “Lehrbuch der georgischen Sprache”.
I am a beginner, so be careful when you read this.

Wikipedia says about syncope: http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncope

Before you read this, you should be familiar with the plural marker -ებ- and the case markers -ით (instrumental), -ის (genitive), -ად (adverbial).
As a friendly Georgian woman ( გამარჯობა, wenn du mal zufällig wieder im Forum bist ) told me, I use the Georgian letters from the beginning, instead of one of the differing transliterations.

Unfortunately there is no fixed rule, but syncope occurs on nouns when:
- a suffix, which starts with a vowel, is added (these are the plural maker -ებ- and the case markers -ით, -ის, -ად)
- the noun root ends with a consonant
- the vowel in the last syllable is ა, ე or ო (syncope never occurs on the vowels ი and უ)

In such cases the vowel of the last syllable, in most words, is lost.
Also possible: The vowel ო is transformed to ვ.

Further can be said:
- ლ, რ, მ, ნ or ვ after one of the three vowels (ა, ე, ო) in the last syllable, makes syncope very likely
- foreign words are also affected
- syncope can be irregular

Examples:

friend
root: მეგობარ-
nom.: მეგობარი
erg.: მეგობარმა
dat.: მეგობარს
gen.: მეგობრის [მეგობ[s]ა[/s]რ-ის]
instr.: მეგობრით [მეგობ[s]ა[/s]რ-ით]
adv.: მეგობრად [მეგობ[s]ა[/s]რ-ად]
voc.: მეგობარო

friends
nom.: მეგობრები [მეგობ[s]ა[/s]რ-ებ-ი]
erg.: მეგობრებმა [მეგობ[s]ა[/s]რ-ებ-მა]
dat.: მეგობრებს [მეგობ[s]ა[/s]რ-ებ-ს]
gen.: მეგობრების [მეგობ[s]ა[/s]რ-ებ-ის]
instr.: მეგობრებით [მეგობ[s]ა[/s]რ-ებ-ით]
adv.: მეგობრებად [მეგობ[s]ა[/s]რ-ებ-ად]
voc.: მეგობრებო [მეგობ[s]ა[/s]რ-ებ-ო]

water (nom. – gen.)
წყალი - წყლის [წყ[s]ა[/s]ლ-ის]
village (nom. – gen.)
სოფელი - სოფლის [სოფ[s]ე[/s]ლ-ის]
leaf (nom. – gen.)
ფოთოლი - ფოთლის [ფოთ[s]ო[/s]ლ-ის]
field (nom. – gen.)
მინდორი - მინდვრის [მინდო->ვრ-ის]

foreign words
general (nom. – gen.)
გენერალი - გენერლის [გენერ[s]ა[/s]ლ-ის]
officer (nom. – gen.)
ოფიცერი - ოფიცრის [ოფიც[s]ე[/s]რ-ის]

irregular
god (nom. – gen. – pl.)
ღმერთი - ღვთის - ღმერთები
But the not syncopated genitive is also possible (ღმერთის). I don’t know if there is difference in meaning?
news; tidings; information (nom. – gen. – pl.)
ამბავი - ამბის - ამბები

As I mentioned above, I am a beginner, so please correct me, if you find something wrong.

My favourite dictionaries (http://www.translate.ge and http://www.foreignword.com/dictionary/Georgian) do not leave a word about syncope, so how should I, as a non Georgian, now, when syncope occurs? I feel nothing in my little finger .
These dictionaries are for translation, maybe the information about syncope is only in orthographical dictionaries?
Is there an orthographical dictionary on a Georgian homepage available?
I searched for ლექსიკონი on google.ge, but without result (It is rather difficult with my little Georgian knowledge. )

[zhiguli]

these are pretty good guidelines and the a/e+r/l/m/n rule already covers a huge percentage of them (afaik, monosyllabic roots have a tendency not to elide the vowel, as well as ones that would result in "simple" consonant clusters) but otherwise it's just learn as you go, no matter how many rules you learn there will be exceptions.

i like this dictionary:

http://www.kvali.com/dictionary/v1/

it uses old pre-unicode fonts but it has lots of example sentences which include those key declined forms.

i also have a dictionary ქართული ენის ორთოგრაფიული ლექსიკონი which gives the genitive forms of these nouns but i have no idea where you'd find it.

[Mag.Ludi]

i like this dictionary:
http://www.kvali.com/dictionary/v1/
it uses old pre-unicode fonts but it has lots of example sentences which include those key declined forms.

I have had already stored the link and installed the fonts, but I used it very seldom ..... don't know why?
You are right, there are very good and helpful examples, so from now I will have three favourite dictionaries .

[zhiguli]

it is also possible to search it in georgian by selecting the dialogue box at the top and using character map to "type" out the georgian words.