This article will be permanently flagged as inappropriate and made unaccessible to everyone. Are you certain this article is inappropriate? Excessive Violence Sexual Content Political / Social
Email Address:
Article Id: WHEBN0000448560 Reproduction Date:
Geor, 240
Geok, 241
The Georgian scripts are the three Kartvelian languages.[2]
The scripts originally had 38 diacritics for its many vowels.[2][4]
Georgian scripts hold the national status of UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists.[5]
The origins of the Georgian script are to this date poorly known, and no full agreement exists among Georgian and foreign scholars as to its date of creation, who designed the script and the main influences on that process.
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, Kakheti, in the 1980s, to the 1st or 2nd century has not been universally accepted.[10]
A point of contention among scholars is the role played by
Mkhedruli of King Bagrat IV of Georgia
Mkhedruli of King George II of Georgia
Mkhedruli of King David IV of Georgia
Mkhedruli of King George III of Georgia
Mkhedruli of Queen Tamar of Georgia
Mkhedruli of King George IV of Georgia
Mkhedruli of King George V of Georgia
Nuskhuri of 8th to 10th centuries
Nuskhuri of Jruchi Gospels, 13th century
Nuskhuri of the 11th century
Nuskhuri of Mokvi
Nuskhuri Iadgari of Mikael Modrekili, 10th century
Nuskhuri by Nikrai, 12th century
Asomtavruli of the 6th and 7th centuries
Asomtavruli at Barakoni
Asomtavruli Doliskana inscriptions
Asomtavruli at Ishkhani
Asomtavruli at Nikortsminda Cathedral
Gallery of Asomtavruli, Nuskhuri and Mkhedruli scripts.
Below is the standard Georgian-language keyboard layout, the traditional layout of manual typewriters.
The Unicode block for Georgian is U+10A0–U+10FF. Mkhedruli (modern Georgian) occupies the U+10D0–U+10FF range and Asomtavruli occupies the U+10A0–U+10CF range. The Unicode block for Georgian Supplement is U+2D00–U+2D2F and it encodes Nuskhuri.[2]
The first Georgian script was added to the Irakli Garibashvili)
This table lists the three scripts in parallel columns, including the letters that are now obsolete in all alphabets (shown with a blue background), obsolete in Georgian but still used in other alphabets (green background), or additional letters in languages other than Georgian (pink background). The "national" transliteration is the system used by the Georgian government, whereas "Laz" is the Latin Laz alphabet used in Turkey. The table also shows the traditional numeric values of the letters.[69]
In Asomtavruli and Nuskhuri punctuation, various combinations of dots were used as Latin script.[68]
Georgian scripts come in only a single type face, though word processors can apply automatic ("fake")[66] oblique and bold formatting to Georgian text. Traditionally, Asomtavruli was used for chapter or section titles, where Latin script might use bold or italic type.
Mkhedruli, in the 11th to 17th centuries also came to employ digraphs to the point that they were obligatory, requiring adhesion to a complex system.[65]
Nuskhuri, like Asomtavruli is also often highly stylized. Writers readily formed ligatures and abbreviations for nomina sacra, including diacritics called karagma, which resemble titla. Because writing materials such as vellum were scarce and therefore precious, abbreviating was a practical measure widespread in manuscripts and hagiography by the 11th century.[64]
Asomtavruli is often highly stylized and writers readily formed ligatures, intertwined letters, and placed letters within letters.[63]
Several letters are similar and may be confused at first, especially in handwriting.
ჱ (he) may be written without the loop, like a conflation of ს and ჰ.
ჭ (ch'ari) may be written without the hook at the top, and often with a completely straight vertical line.
წ (ts'ili) is generally written with a round bowl at the bottom, .
ტ (t'ari) often has a small circle with a tail hanging into the bowl, rather than two small circles as in print, or as an O with a straight vertical line intersecting the top. It may also be rotated a bit clockwise, with the small circles further to the right and not as close to the top.
რ (rae) is frequently written with one arc, , like a Latin ⟨h⟩.
Rarely, ო (oni) is written as a right angle, .
ლ (lasi) is frequently written with a single arc, . Even when all three are written, they're generally not all the same size, as they are in print, but rather riding on one wide arc like two dimples in it.
კ, ც, and ძ (k'ani, tsani, dzili) are generally written with straight, vertical lines at the top, so that for example ც (tsani) resembles a U with a dimple in the right side.
დ (doni) is frequently written with a simple loop at top, .
გ (gani) may be written like ვ (vini) with a closed loop at the bottom.
There is individual and stylistic variation in many of the letters. For example, the top circle of ზ (zeni) and the top stroke of რ (rae) may go in the other direction than shown in the chart (that is, counter-clockwise starting at 3 o'clock, and upwards – see the external-link section for videos of people writing). Other common variants:
ზ, ო, and ხ (zeni, oni, khani) are almost always written without the small tick at the end, while the handwritten form of ჯ (jani) often uses a vertical line, (sometimes with a taller ascender, or with a diagonal cross bar); even when it's written at a diagonal, the cross-bar is generally shorter than in print.
The following table shows the stroke order and direction of each Mkhedruli letter:[60][61][62]
Mkhedruli has been adapted to languages besides Georgian. Some of these alphabets retained letters obsolete in Georgian, while others required additional letters:
All but ჵ (hoe) continue to be used in the Svan alphabet; ჲ (hie) is used in the Mingrelian and Laz alphabets as well, for the y-sound /j/. Several others were used for Abkhaz and Ossetian in the short time they were written in Mkhedruli script.
[57] The
The modern Georgian alphabet consists of 33 letters:
Example of one of the oldest Mkhedruli-written texts found in the royal charter of King Bagrat IV of Georgia, 11th century.
Mkhedruli inscriptions of the 10th and 11th centuries are characterized in rounding of angular shapes of Nuskhuri letters and making the complete outlines in all of its letters. Mkhedruli letters are written in the four-linear system, similar to Nuskhuri. Mkhedruli becomes more round and free in writing. It breaks the strict frame of the previous two alphabets, Asomtavruli and Nuskhuri. Mkhedruli letters begin to get coupled and more free calligraphy develops.[56]
Mkhedruli became more and more dominant over the two other scripts, though Khutsuri (Nuskhuri with Asomtavruli) was used until the 19th century. Since the 19th century, with the establishment and development of the printed Georgian fonts, Mkhedruli became universal writing Georgian outside the Church.[55]
Like the two other scripts, Mkhedruli is purely royal charters, historical documents, manuscripts and inscriptions.[52] Mkhedruli was used for non-religious purposes only and represented the "civil", "royal" and "secular" script.[53][54]
Mkhedruli (cavalry" or "military", derives from mkhedari (მხედარი) meaning "horseman", "knight", "warrior"[50] and "cavalier".[51]
[49] Asomtavruli is used intensively in
The following table shows the stroke order and direction of each Nuskhuri letter:[45]
Nuskhuri letters vary in height, with ascenders and descenders, and are slanted to the right. Letters have an angular shape, with a noticeable tendency to simplify the shapes they had in Asomtavruli. This enabled faster writing of manuscripts.[44]
Nuskhuri first appeared in the 9th century as a graphic variant of Asomtavruli.[41] The oldest inscription is found in the Ateni Sioni Church and dates to 835 AD.[42] The oldest surviving Nuskhuri manuscripts date to 864 AD.[43] Nuskhuri becomes dominant over Asomtavruli from the 10th century.[40]
[40].hagiography"), and it was principally used in cleric (ხუცესი) "khutsesi, "clerical", from ხუცური (Nuskhuri
The following table shows the stroke order and direction of each Asomtavruli letter:[39]
The "Curly" decorative form of Asomtavruli is also used where the letters are wattled or intermingled on each other, or the smaller letters are written inside other letters. It was mostly used for the headlines of the manuscripts or the books, although there are compete inscriptions which were written in the Asomtavruli "Curly" form only.[38]
Asomtavruli letter დ (doni) is often written with decoration effects of fish and birds.[37]
Importance was attached also to the colour of the ink itself.[36]
From the 11th-century "limb-flowery", "limb-arrowy" and "limb-spotty" decorative forms of Asomtavruli are developed. The first two are found in 11th- and 12th-century monuments, whereas the third one is used until the 18th century.[34][35]
[33] In Nuskhuri manuscripts, Asomtavruli are used for titles and
From the 7th century, the forms of some letters began to change. The equal height of the letters was abandoned, with letters acquiring ascenders and descenders.[31][32]
In most Asomtavruli letters, straight lines are horizontal or vertical and meet at right angles. The only letter with X,[30] though these letters do not have that function in Phoenician, Greek, or Latin.
In early Asomtavruli, the letters are of equal height. Georgian historian and philologist Pavle Ingorokva believes that the direction of Asomtavruli, like that of Greek, was initially boustrophedon, though the direction of the earliest surviving texts is from left to the right.[28]
[27] Although, some manuscripts written completely in Asomtavruli can be found until the 11th century.[26] From the 9th century, Nuskhuri script starting becoming dominant, and the role of Asomtavruli was reduced. However,
The oldest Asomtavruli inscriptions found so far date from the 5th century[23] and are Bir El Qutt[24] and the Bolnisi inscriptions.[25]
[22] (Asomtavruli
[21] Another controversy regards the main influences at play in the Georgian alphabet, as scholars have debated whether it was inspired more by the
[19] assigns a much earlier, pre-Christian origin to the Georgian alphabet, and names King [9] (ca. 800),Lives of the Kings of Kartli A competing Georgian tradition, first attested in medieval chronicles such as the
[18][17]:4[9]
ݫ, Persian language, Sindhi language, Uyghur language, Bosnian language
Ἀ, American English, Greek language, Latin alphabet, Sigma
Ѐ, Yus, Russia, Greek alphabet, Microsoft
Greek alphabet, Latin alphabet, Hebrew alphabet, Hangul, Syriac alphabet
Alphabet, Abugida, Sanskrit, Kana, Chinese language