Group Members: Ornisha Chowdhury, Ayah Elgaly, Julia Necka, Nellie Yarkhunov, Tiffany Rodriguez, Rachel Stern, Layla Cohen
- Speaker: Nellie’s mother
- Language Name: Georgian
- Language Family: Kartvelian
- Population: About 4 million speakers
- Vitality Rating: Not in danger
- Location: Georgia, Eastern Europe
Language Overview:
Georgian is not known to be an endangered language. It is historically spoken in Georgia and has about 4 million speakers around the globe. Including countries like Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkey, Russia, the United States, and many places around Europe. The Standard Georgian is mainly spoken in the capital (Tbilisi). Although there are different dialects throughout the country, mostly all Georgian speakers can understand each other. The dialects are divided into East Georgian and West Georgian groups. The language dates to the 5th century but now the new Georgian literary language is based on the east Georgian dialect. Old Georgian was used for religious purpose until about the beginning of the 19th century. Georgian can be related to the same speech as the Indo-European Languages. Going back in time, Georgian languages was written with three different scrips known as Astomtavruli which then evolved into Khutsuri and another script was Mkhendruli.
Bells Criteria regarding Georgian:
With the use of bells criteria, including standardization, vitality, historicity, autonomy, reduction, mixing, and de facto standards, Allan Bell provides a thorough framework for comprehending the complexity of language usage and evolution. The degree to which a language has been formalized, typically through established dictionaries, spelling, and grammar rules, is referred to as standardization.
Standardized languages are often more frequently used, particularly in official and educational contexts. For example, the Georgian language is standardized in governmental and educational settings due to its defined script and grammatical standards.
Vitality evaluates a language’s ability to be actively utilized within its community and how well it is transmitted to future generations. One of the oldest languages still in use today, Georgian has a complex linguistic history spanning more than 2,000 years.
The concept of autonomy examines whether a language can communicate independently or via the use of another language. Despite being surrounded by languages like Russian, Turkish, and Armenian, Georgian remains incredibly independent, retaining its own distinct character like the Georgian alphabet, and organization.
Reduction takes into account the simplicity or loss of language characteristics, such as phonetic or grammatical alterations, which can be a sign of decline or adaptation. Compared to many other languages, Georgian nevertheless maintains a complicated structure, despite modest verb morphological reduction throughout time.
Languages can be borrowed or blended by mixing, creating hybrid forms. Georgian has a large vocabulary of borrowed phrases, particularly in the fields of politics and business, as a consequence of its absorption of aspects from languages like Farsi, Turkish, and Russian.
De facto norms represent the informal and pragmatic aspects of language usage, are the unspoken guidelines that speakers adhere to. The social and cultural environment has a significant impact on these standards in Georgian, with varied degrees of formality being employed in different contexts. When taken as a whole, these standards shed light on the social, cultural, and historical aspects of language’s dynamic and ever-changing nature, as demonstrated by the Georgian language.
