I am a boy. That/she is a girl. Is this a girl? This is not a girl, this is a boy.
I am here. You are there. That/he/she is also there.
Are you a boy or a girl? I am a boy. Who is this? This is a girl. Who is that/she? That/she is a girl. Is this a girl? No, this is a boy.
Where are you? I am here. Where is he? He is there. Is that woman here? No, that woman is not here. Is the man here? Yes, the man is here.
What is your name? My name is David. What is your surname? I am Mušk’udiān (in Georgian Mushkudiani). What is his/her surname? It is Rǟt’iān (Ratiani). (or: His/her surname is Rǟt’iān).
Is that a girl or a woman? That is neither a girl nor woman, that is a man.
I am a boy. My name is Bäsli (Basli), surname is Märgiān (Margiani). I am here. This is my friend. His/her surname and name is Güdān Dadäw (Dadav Gvidani). He/she is also here. Your friend is my friend too.
E}{pugnator wrote:Looks great! I wonder if I could ever learn one of other Kartvelian languages (I believe Laz is a bit more documented and I may have seen a textbook for mingrelian, maybe in Georgian actually, not sure).
If you are using a Georgian textbook, does that mean you can read Georgian well? (I'm learning Georgian myself, just wondering).
Hildakojon wrote:Also, I don't get why they'd use უ with a circumflex for [w] when ვ is usually pronounced as [w] in Georgian.
Well, don't know if [w] is more common than [v] for ვ, but I know both are valid allophones.
Qaanaaq wrote:Georgian ვ is pronounced [v], [w], [ɸ] depending on the phonological context. In the beginning of the word and between vowels it is always pronounced as [v] or, to my ear, [ʋ], but never [w] (for more see Marika Butskhrikidze ‘The Consonant Phonotactics of Georgian’ (2002), page 88). It is really funny because my Georgian friends can’t really distinguish between the allophones, so they hear absolutely no difference between the English words wine and vine. On the other hand, my Svan friends are very well aware that their phoneme is always pronounced [w] and that it is distinct from the Georgian ვ. In one old Svan book I saw ვ being used for [w], which made a lot of sense because [v] is not used in Svan anyway, but all modern literature uses უ̂ and Svans seemed to prefer it, because it doesn’t make them confused…
E}{pugnator wrote:Kipshide - Grammatika Mingrel'skago Jazyka
There's a Laz grammatika too, same publishing house, but from Marr'.
E}{pugnator wrote:So, Svan distinguishes ser/estar just like Portuguese/Spanish?
E}{pugnator wrote:How did you learn Georgian then? I've been studying regularly since January but it's very slow, I'm having a hard time memorizing words.
Hildakojon wrote:I would also be interested in what you did to learn Georgian.
David-Edinburgh wrote:Thanks so much for this!!
I'm going to Latali in Upper Svaneti next week and this is going to be so useful! I have the Svan-English dictionary by Palmaitis & Gudjedjiani but I was desperately looking for some basic conversation and grammar.
By the way, is Topuria's intro to Svan available in Tbilisi? If so where might I find it.
Cheers again
David
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