The Georgian letter is presented in three versions: Asomtavrul, Nushkhuri and Mhedrul. Although the systems differ in appearance, they are all unique, that is, their letters have the same names and alphabetical order, and are also written horizontally from left to right. Of the three Georgian letters, Mhedruli was once royal.
It was he who was mainly used in the state office. Now this kind is standard for modern Georgian and related Kartvelian languages. Asomtavruli and Nuskhuri are used only in the Orthodox Church - in ceremonial religious texts and iconography.
History
Georgian writing is unique in appearance. Its exact origin has not yet been established. Structurally, however, their alphabetical order largely corresponds to Greek, with the exception of letters denoting unique sounds that are grouped at the end of the list. Initially, the letter consisted of 38 characters, but in the modern world there are only 33 characters left, because five letters are currently out of date.
The number of Georgian characters used in other Kartvelian segments varies. Megrelian uses 36 letters, 33 of which are current. One outdated Georgian letter and two additional letters refer to Mingrelian Svan.
Laz uses the same 33 current characters as Mingrelian, and obsolete letters borrowed from the Greek language. A total of 35 elements.
The fourth Kartvelian style (Svan) is usually not used. When they write to them, they use the same symbols as in Mingrelian, with an additional obsolete alphabet, and sometimes with diacritics for its many vowels.
The Georgian letter received the national status of intangible cultural heritage in the country in 2015. It is listed by UNESCO in a representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of mankind in 2016.
Georgian letter, origin
It is not known exactly where the alphabet came from. There is no full agreement among Georgian and foreign scientists regarding the date of its creation, who developed what influenced this process. It is worth noting several options at once.
The first version is attested as the Georgian letter of Asomtavruli, which dates back to at least the 5th century. Other species were formed much later. Most scholars associate the creation of Georgian writing with the Christianization of Iberia (not to be confused with the Iberian Peninsula), the main kingdom of Kartli. Therefore, the alphabet most likely was created between the conversion of this country under King Mirian III and the inscriptions of Bir al-Kutta in 430, simultaneously with the Armenian alphabet.
It was first used to translate the Bible and other Christian literature into the local language by monks in Georgia and Palestine. The dating of Professor Levan Chilashvili's fragmented inscriptions of Asomtavruli, discovered by him in the ruined city of Nekresi (the easternmost province of Georgia Kakheti) in the 80s of the last century, was not accepted.
Linguists
The Georgian tradition, first witnessed in the medieval annals of “The Life of Kartli Kings” (circa 800), attributes the alphabet to pre-Christian origin and calls the ruler of Farnavaz I (3rd century BC) his inventor. This option is currently considered legendary. It is rejected by scientific consensus, as no archaeological evidence has been found.
Rapp believes that tradition is an attempt by the Georgian church to refute an earlier system, according to which the alphabet was invented by the Armenian scholar Mesrop Mashtots and is a local application of the Iranian model. In it, the original form, or rather, its creation is attributed to the kings, as was the case with the main social institutions. Georgian linguist Tamaz Gamkrelidze offers an alternative interpretation of the tradition in the pre-Christian use of foreign scripts (alloglottography in the Aramaic alphabet) for recording Georgian texts.
Church question
Another subject of controversy among scholars is the role of foreign clergy in this process. Based on a number of experts and medieval sources, Mesrop Mashtots (the recognized creator of the Armenian alphabet) also founded Georgian, Caucasian and Albanian letters. This tradition originates in the works of Koryun, a fifth-century historian and biographer Mashtots. It also included quotes from Donald Rayfield and James R. Russell. But this teaching was criticized by scholars from both Georgia and the West.
The main argument was that judging Koryun’s approach is not very reliable, even in later interpolation. Other scholars cite the author’s claims without considering their validity. However, many agree that Armenian clergy (if not Mashtots himself) should have played a role in creating the Georgian letter.
Pre-Christian period
Another contradiction concerns the main influences on the Georgian alphabet, as scholars argue about whether it was inspired by Greek or Semitic spelling. This question arises because the symbols are similar to Aramaic signs. True, recent historiography focuses on a greater resemblance to the Greek alphabet than to others. This statement is based on the order and numerical value of the letters. Some scholars have suggested certain pre-Christian Georgian cultural symbols or clan markers as possible inspiration for some letters.
Asomtavruli
How is the Georgian letter written? Asomtavruli is the oldest written language. This word means “uppercase characters”: from aso (ასო) “letter” and mtavari (მთავარი) “leader”. Despite its name, this "capital" type is unicameral, like the modern Georgian Mkhedruli.
The oldest inscriptions of Asomtavruli, found to date, date back to the 5th century and are located in Bir al-Kutt and Bolnisi.
From the 9th century, the Nuskhuri script begins to dominate, and the role of Asomtavruli decreases. However, epigraphic monuments of the 10th – 18th centuries continued to be created in the first version of the letter. Asomtavruli in this late period became more decorative. In the majority of 9th century Georgian manuscripts written in Nushkhuri script, the ancient version was used for the names and first letters of the chapters. However, some manuscripts written entirely in Asomtavruli can be found right up to the 11th century.
Nuskhuri
Georgian handwritten writing really looks very beautiful. Nuskhuri is the second national option. The name of this species comes from Nusha (ნუსხა), which means “inventory” or “schedule”. Soon Nuskhuri was supplemented by Asomtavruli in religious manuscripts. This combination (Hutsuri) is used mainly in hagiography.
Nuskhuri first appeared in the 9th century as a graphic version of Asomtavruli. The oldest inscription is found in the church of Ateni Sioni. It dates from 835 year of our era. And the oldest surviving manuscripts of Nuskhuri date back to 864 AD. e. Such a letter has become dominant over Asomtavruli since the X century.
Mkhedruli
It is quite difficult to answer the question of what is the name of the Georgian letter, because today there are several options. Mkhedruli is the third and current national species. The letter literally means "cavalry" or "military." Comes from mkhedari (მხედარი), meaning “horseman”, “knight”, “warrior” and “cavalier”.
Mkhedruli is bicameral, spelled with capital letters called Mtavruli (მხედრული). Currently, Mtavruli is commonly used in text in headlines or to highlight a word. It is known that in the late XIX and early XX centuries it was sometimes used in Latin and Cyrillic letters, for uppercase proper names or the initial word in a sentence.
Mkhedruli first appears in the X century. The oldest Georgian letter found in the church of Ateni Sioni. It dates from 982 the year of our era. The second ancient text, written in the style of Mkhedruli, was found in the royal letters of the 11th century to King Bagrat IV of Georgia. Such a letter was mainly used then in Georgia for various state letters, historical documents, manuscripts and inscriptions. That is, Mkhedruli was used only for non-religious purposes and was a civil, royal and secular options.
This style became increasingly dominant over the other two, although Hutsuri (a mixture of Nuskhuri and Asomtavruli) was used until the beginning of the 19th century. Mkhedruli became the universal written system of Georgia outside the Church only during this period. This happened with the creation and development of printed national fonts. The features of Georgian writing are really surprising.
Character placement
In punctuation, Asomtavruli and Nushuri various combinations of dots were used as word separators and to separate phrases, sentences and paragraphs. In the monumental inscriptions and manuscripts of the 5th-10th centuries, they were written as follows: (-, =) and (= -). In the X century, Efrem Mtsire introduced clusters of one (·), two (:), three (჻) and six (჻჻) points (later sometimes small circles) to indicate growing gaps in the text. One sign indicates a small stop (presumably a simple space). Two punctuation marked or shared particular words. Three points for a larger stop. Six characters should indicate the end of the sentence.
