This article contains Georgian text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Georgian letters.
Georgian alphabet

Type Alphabet
Spoken languages South Caucasian (Kartvelian) languages
Time period c. 430 CE to present
Unicode range U+10A0–U+10FC
U+2D00–U+2D25
ISO 15924 Geor
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.
History of the alphabet

The Georgian alphabet (Georgian: ქართული დამწერლობა, [kʰɑrtʰuli dɑmtsʼɛrlɔbɑ], literally "Georgian script") is the writing system used to write the Georgian language and other South Caucasian (Kartvelian) languages (Mingrelian, Svan, sometimes Laz), and occasionally other languages of the Caucasus such as Ossetic and Abkhaz during the 1940s.[1] The Georgian language has phonemic orthography and the modern alphabet has thirty-three letters.

The word meaning "alphabet," Georgian: ანბანი [anbani], is derived from the names of the first two letters of the Georgian alphabets. The three independent alphabets have the interesting characteristic of looking very dissimilar to one another yet share the same alphabetic order and letter names. The alphabets may be seen mixed to some extent, though Georgian is officially unicameral meaning there is normally no distinction between upper and lower case in any of the alphabets.

History of the Georgian alphabets

The writing of the Georgian language has progressed through three forms, known by their Georgian names: Asomtavruli, Nuskhuri, and Mkhedruli. They have always been distinct alphabets, even if they have been used together to write the same languages, and even though these alphabets share the same letter names and collation. Although the most recent alphabet, Mkhedruli, contains more letters than the two historical ones, those extra letters are no longer needed for writing modern Georgian.

The Georgian kingdom of Iberia converted to Christianity in the 330s AD. Scholars believe that the creation of an Old Georgian alphabet modeled upon the Greek alphabet[2] was instrumental in making religious scripture more accessible to the Georgians. This happened in the 4th or 5th century, not long after conversion. The oldest uncontested example of Georgian writing is an Asomtavruli inscription from 430 AD in a church in Bethlehem.

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It has been believed [3] [4] that the Georgian alphabet was created by Mesrop Mashtots (who also created the Armenian alphabet around 405 AD and the Albanian alphabet). This viewpoint, based on the Armenian sources of the 5th-7th centuries, is accepted by encyclopaedias [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] , as well as by authoritative scholars [3] [4] [10] [11] . John Greppin and Russian scholar Perikhanian admit that Mesrop Mashtots was not the only creator of the Georgian alphabet, though it could not appear without his participation [12] [13] .

Georgian historical tradition attributes the invention of the Georgian alphabets to the semi-mythical Parnavaz I of Iberia in the 3rd century BC. Georgian scholars believed that the Georgian alphabet was created before Mesrop Mashtots [14] [15] [16] [17] . The modern Georgian scholar Levan Chilashvili, on the basis of dating the Nekresi inscription in eastern Georgia to the 1st-2nd century AD, claimed that Parnavaz probably created the scripts in order to translate the Avesta (sacred Zoroastrian writings) into Georgian. However, a pre-Christian origin for the Georgian scripts has not been firmly supported by archaeological evidence. According to Donald Rayfield, the assumption that the Georgian script has pre-Christian origin, is rather unfounded and was not confirmed by archaeological findings [4] . Stephen H. Rapp, too, has questioned such a dating [18] . Victor Schnirelmann has noted that the Georgian historians somewhat painful attitude towards Mesrop Mashtots is conditioned by their "for the sake of the myth of some pure original indigenous culture" [19]

Asomtavruli, the historical monumental alphabet

Examples of the earliest alphabet, Asomtavruli (also known as Mrgvlovani), are still preserved in monumental inscriptions such as those of the Georgian church in Bethlehem (near Jerusalem, 430 AD) and the church of Bolnisi Sioni near Tbilisi (4th-5th centuries).

Asomtavruli (ასომთავრული,"capital letters") derives from aso (ასო, "letter, type") and mtavari (მთავარი, "main, chief, principal, head"). Mrgvlovani (მრგვლოვანი, "rounded") is related to the word mrgvali (მრგვალი, "round"). Despite its common Georgian name, this rounded alphabet was originally purely unicameral, just like the modern Georgian alphabet.

Incidentally, a unique local form of Aramaic writing known as Armazuli (არმაზული დამწერლობა, armazuli damts'erloba, i.e. the "Armazian script") existed before that, as demonstrated by the 1940s discovery of a bilingual Greco-Aramaic inscription at Mtskheta, Georgia. It is conceivable that local pre-Christian records did exist, but were subsequently destroyed by zealous Christians. Many found more palatable the idea that the medieval Georgian chronicles actually refer to the introduction of a local form of written Aramaic during the reign of Parnavaz [18] . None of these traditions seems to have much currency as, in the view of modern scholars, the only convincing explanation for the similarities has to be the same influences rather than the same creator.[20]

Asomtavruli letters
Ⴀ Ⴁ Ⴂ Ⴃ Ⴄ Ⴅ Ⴆ Ⴡ Ⴇ Ⴈ Ⴉ Ⴊ Ⴋ Ⴌ
Ⴢ Ⴍ Ⴎ Ⴏ Ⴐ Ⴑ Ⴒ Ⴣ ႭჃ, Ⴓ Ⴔ Ⴕ Ⴖ Ⴗ Ⴘ
Ⴙ Ⴚ Ⴛ Ⴜ Ⴝ Ⴞ Ⴤ Ⴟ Ⴠ Ⴥ  
Note that some fonts for modern Georgian do not show the actual Asomtavruli forms for these letters, but instead show taller ("capitalized") variants of the modern Mkhedruli alphabet (see below).

This unicameral alphabet is still used today in some section headings and book titles, and sometimes used in a pseudo-bicameral way by varying the glyph sizes for creating capitals. Since it is no longer used for writing Georgian, it has also been reused in a creative way for writing capital letters, along with letters of one of the two other Georgian alphabets.

Nuskhuri, the ecclesiastical alphabet

The Nuskhuri (ნუსხური "minuscule, lowercase") alphabet first appeared in the 9th century. It was mostly used in ecclesiastical works. Nuskhuri is related to the word nuskha (ნუსხა "inventory, schedule").

Nuskhuri letters
ⴀ ⴁ ⴂ ⴃ ⴄ ⴅ ⴆ ⴡ ⴇ ⴈ ⴉ ⴊ ⴋ ⴌ
ⴢ ⴍ ⴎ ⴏ ⴐ ⴑ ⴒ ⴣ ⴍⴣ, ⴓ ⴔ ⴕ ⴖ ⴗ ⴘ
ⴙ ⴚ ⴛ ⴜ ⴝ ⴞ ⴤ ⴟ ⴠ ⴥ

The forms of the Khutsuri letters may have been derived from the northern Arsacid variant of the Pahlavi (or Middle Iranian) script, which itself was derived from the older Aramaic, although the direction of writing (from left to right), the use of separate symbols for the vowel sounds, the numerical values assigned to the letters in earlier times, and the order of the letters all point to significant Greek influence on the script.[21]

However, the Georgian linguist Tamaz Gamkrelidze argues that the forms of the letters are freely invented in imitation of the Greek model rather than directly based upon earlier forms of the Aramaic alphabet, even though the Georgian phonological inventory is very different from Greek.

Like the monumental Asomtavruli alphabet, this squared alphabet was initially purely unicameral. However, it has also been used also along with the Asomtavruli alphabet (serving as capital letters in religious manuscripts) to form the Khutsuri (ხუცური "ecclesiastical") bicameral style that is still used sometimes today.

Mkhedruli, the current, originally secular alphabet

The currently used alphabet, called Mkhedruli (მხედრული, "cavalry" or "military"), first appeared in the 11th century. It was used for non-religious purposes up until the eighteenth century, when it completely replaced the Khutsuri style (that used the two previous alphabets). Mkhedruli is related to mkhedari (მხედარი, "horseman", "knight", or "warrior"); Khutsuri is related to khutsesi (ხუცესი, "elder" or "priest").

Mkhedruli letters
ა ბ გ დ ე ვ ზ ჱ თ ი კ ლ მ ნ
ჲ ო პ ჟ რ ს ტ ჳ უ ფ ქ ღ ყ შ
ჩ ც ძ წ ჭ ხ ჴ ჯ ჰ ჵ ჶ ჷ ჸ  

Like the two other alphabets, the Mkhedruli alphabet is purely unicameral. However, certain modern writers have experimented with using Asomtavruli letters as capitals, simliarly to Khutsuri script style. In some cases, this may be a conflation with the religious Khutsuri style rather than the result of a creative design choice. Georgians often consider this bicameral use of Mkhedruli an error because some Mkhedruli letters lack equivalents in the other alphabets. Others use the Mkhedruli alphabet alone in a pseudo-bicameral way, adapting letter sizes to create capital letters, known as Mtavruli for titles and headings. Mtavruli (მთავრული) means "titlecase" and is an appropriate tribute to the older Asomtavruli.