TheMingrelian orMegrelian language (მარგალური ნინაmargaluri nina) is aKartvelian language spoken in WesternGeorgia (regions ofMingrelia andAbkhazia), primarily by theMingrelians. Mingrelian has historically been only aregional language within the boundaries of historical Georgian states and then modern Georgia, and the number of younger people speaking it has decreased substantially, withUNESCO designating it as a "definitelyendangered language".[2]
No reliable figure exists for the number of native speakers of Mingrelian, but it is estimated to be between 300,000 and 500,000. Most speakers live in theMingrelia (or Samegrelo and formerlyOdishi) region of Georgia, which comprises theOdishi Hills and theColchis Lowlands, from theBlack Sea coast to theSvan Mountains and theTskhenistskali River. Smaller enclaves existed inAbkhazia,[3] but the ongoing civil unrest there has displaced many Mingrelian speakers to other regions of Georgia. Their geographical distribution is relatively compact, which has helped to promote the transmission of the language between generations.
Mingrelian is generally written in theGeorgian alphabet, but it has no written standard or official status. Almost all speakers are bilingual; they use Mingrelian mainly for familiar and informal conversation, andGeorgian (or, for expatriate speakers, the local official language) for other purposes.
Mingrelian is one of theKartvelian languages. It is closely related toLaz, from which it has become differentiated mostly in the past 500 years, after the northern (Mingrelian) and southern (Laz) communities were separated by Turkic invasions. It is less closely related to Georgian, the two branches having separated in the first millennium BC or earlier, and even more distantly related toSvan, which is believed to have branched off in the 2nd millennium BC or earlier.[4] Mingrelian ismutually intelligible only withLaz.
Some linguists refer to Mingrelian and Laz asZan languages.[5] Zan had already split into Mingrelian and Laz variants by early modern times, however, and it is not customary to speak of a unified Zan language today.
The consonant inventory of Mingrelian contains series ofaspirated andejective consonants that contrast with voiced consonants. The inventory and is almost identical to that ofLaz,Georgian, andSvan. The table below shows the consonants of Mingrelian inromanized script, phonetic symbols from theIPA, and inMkhedruli script.
If the stem containsr then the suffixes-ar and-ur transform to-al and-ul, e.g.xorga(Gaghma Pirveli Khorga [ka], the village)→xorg-ul-i ("Khorgan").The rule is not valid if in the stem withr anl appears later, e.g.marṫvili("Martvili", the town) djmarṫvil-ur-i(adj. "Martvilian")
In a stem with voiceless affricates or voiceless sibilants, a laterǯ isdeaffricated tod, e.g.orcxondjidjorcxondi "comb",ç̌andjidjç̌andi "fly (insect)",isindjidjisindi "arrow", etc.
Between the vowels the organic[clarification needed]v disappears, e.g.xvavi(Geo. "abundance, plenty") →*xvai→xvee (id.),mṭevani(Geo. "raceme") →ţiani (id.), etc.
Mingrelian is written in the GeorgianMkhedruli script. The spelling using the Mkhedruli script uses symbols not used in Georgian : ⟨ჲ ჷ ჸ⟩ to represent /j ə ʔ/, respectively. The Mkhedruli script was used in Mingrelian publications from 1866 to 1906, from 1930 to 1939, in 1966, and has been used from 1995 on.
One book in Mingrelian was printed in theCyrillic script in 1899 using the alphabet shown below. Slightly different Cyrillic orthographies were used in several printed texts from 1887 to 1903. The 1887 version had several Cyrillic letters in unusual phonetic values: я [dz], ѣ [h].
The Latin script column shows romanizations used by linguists.
^"Georgia".U.S. Department of State. First paragraph, third sentence. Retrieved9 April 2016.The United States supports Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders, and does not recognize the Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions of Georgia, currently occupied by Russia, as independent.
Beridze, Shalva (1920).Megruli (Iveriuli) Ena [Megrelian (Iverian) Language] (in Georgian).
Broers, Laurence (2012). "'Two Sons of One Mother'. Nested Identities and Centre-Periphery Politics in Post-Soviet Georgia". In Schonle, Andreas; Makarova, Olga; Hicks, Jeremy (eds.).When the Elephant Broke Out of the Zoo. A Festschrift for Donald Rayfield. Stanford Slavic Studies. Vol. 39.ISBN9781572010888.
Tsargareli, Aleksandre (1880).Megrelʹskie ėti͡udy, Analiz fonetiki megrelʹskogo i͡azyka [Megrelian Studies — The Analysis of Phonetics of Megrelian Language] (in Russian).
