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52-446: The Free Svan communities occupied eastern part of Upper Svaneti , the so-called Upper Bal region, along the upper Enguri River , and comprised the Latali , Lenjeri , Mulakhi , Mulazhi , Ieli , Tsvirmi , Ipari , Adishi , Kala , and Ushguli village communes, with the population of around 5,200. In contrast to other parts of early modern Svaneti, these communities were not subject to

104-451: A vigesimal numeric system like Basque and (partially) French . Numbers greater than 20 and less than 100 are described as the sum of the greatest possible multiple of 20 plus the remainder. For example, "93" literally translates as 'four times twenty plus thirteen' ( ოთხმოცდაცამეტი , otkhmotsdatsamet’i ). One of the most important Georgian dictionaries is the Explanatory dictionary of

156-539: A Georgian priest from Kutaisi , on a mission to revive Christian church among the Free Svans, who then practiced a mixture of Georgian Orthodox Christianity and pagan beliefs, with no organized church structure. The priest quickly garnered much respect and was able to convince the highlanders to apply for Russian protection. In 1847, most of the Free Svan communities, with the exception of those of Latali and Lenjeri, accepted

208-552: A Roman grammarian from the 2nd century AD. The first direct attestations of the language are inscriptions and palimpsests dating to the 5th century, and the oldest surviving literary work is the 5th century Martyrdom of the Holy Queen Shushanik by Iakob Tsurtaveli . The emergence of Georgian as a written language appears to have been the result of the Christianization of Georgia in the mid-4th century, which led to

260-665: A capital-like effect called Mtavruli for titles and inscriptions. Georgian is an agglutinative language with a complex verb structure that can include up to eight morphemes , exhibiting polypersonalism . The language has seven noun cases and employs a left-branching structure with adjectives preceding nouns and postpositions instead of prepositions. Georgian lacks grammatical gender and articles, with definite meanings established through context. Georgian's rich derivation system allows for extensive noun and verb formation from roots, with many words featuring initial consonant clusters. The Georgian writing system has evolved from ancient scripts to

312-450: A general Suanian preference for the alliance to Persia, set against a Lazican preference for Roman alliance, which was to remain a point of tension until the Arab conquests". The Byzantines wanted the region, for if they secured its passes, they could prevent Persian raids on the border areas of Lazica. With the end of the war (562), Svanetia again became part of Lazica. Then, the province joined

364-546: A medieval rural village, the community of Ushguli in Upper Svaneti was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. Svan songs and dances are notable cultural traditions. Svanetia boasts arguably the most archaic three-part polyphonic singing . Most of their songs are connected to round dances, are performed very loudly and are full of dissonant chords. Georgian language Georgian ( ქართული ენა , kartuli ena , pronounced [ˈkʰartʰuli ˈena] )

416-490: A ri means 'friend'; megobrebi ( megob Ø rebi ) means 'friends', with the loss of a in the last syllable of the word stem. Georgian has seven noun cases: nominative , ergative , dative , genitive , instrumental , adverbial and vocative . An interesting feature of Georgian is that, while the subject of a sentence is generally in the nominative case and the object is in the accusative case (or dative), one can find this reversed in many situations (this depends mainly on

468-399: A row, as may be seen in words like გვფრცქვნ ი gvprtskvni 'you peel us' and მწვრთნ ელი mts’vrtneli 'trainer'. Vicenik has observed that Georgian vowels following ejective stops have creaky voice and suggests this may be one cue distinguishing ejectives from their aspirated and voiced counterparts. Georgian has been written in a variety of scripts over its history. Currently

520-598: A treaty of protectorate with the Russian Empire on November 26, 1833. Difficult to access, the region retained significant autonomy until 1857, when Russia took advantage of the dynastic feud in Svanetia and effectively abolished the principality's autonomy. In 1875, the Russians toughened their rule by imposing additional taxes. Protests ensued, and Russia deployed troops against the province . Despite having suffered heavy losses,

572-589: A word. Georgian vowels in non-initial syllables are pronounced with a shorter duration compared to vowels in initial syllables. long polysyllabic words may have a secondary stress on their third or fourth syllable. Georgian contains many "harmonic clusters" involving two consonants of a similar type (voiced, aspirated, or ejective) that are pronounced with only a single release; e.g. ბგ ერა bgera 'sound', ცხ ოვრება tskhovreba 'life', and წყ ალი ts’q’ali 'water'. There are also frequent consonant clusters , sometimes involving more than six consonants in

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624-457: A zone that experiences short, cool summers (less than 3 months) and long and cold winters. Large parts of Svaneti lie above 3000 meters (9840 feet) above sea level, a zone that does not have a real summer. Due to Svaneti's close proximity to the Black Sea, the region is spared from the extremely cold winter temperatures that are characteristic of high mountains. The Svans are usually identified with

676-532: Is a historic province in the northwestern part of Georgia . Running along the Greater Caucasus range, Svaneti is one of the most mountainous regions of Georgia. It is largely inhabited by the Svans , an ethnic subgroup of Georgians . [REDACTED] = Upper Svaneti [REDACTED] = Lower Svaneti Situated on the southern slopes of the central Caucasus Mountains and surrounded by 3,000–5,000 meter peaks, Svaneti

728-670: Is dominated by mountains that are separated by deep gorges. Most of the region which lies below 1,800 meters (5,904  ft) above sea level is covered by mixed and coniferous forests. The forest zone is made up of tree species such as spruce , fir , beech , oak , and hornbeam . Other species that are less common but may still be found in some areas include chestnut , birch , maple , pine and box . The zone which extends from 1,800 meters to roughly about 3,000 meters (5,904–9,840  ft) above sea level consists of alpine meadows and grasslands. Eternal snows and glaciers take over in areas that are over 3,000 meters above sea level. The region

780-512: Is most closely related to the Zan languages ( Megrelian and Laz ) and more distantly to Svan . Georgian has various dialects , with standard Georgian based on the Kartlian dialect, and all dialects are mutually intelligible. The history of Georgian spans from Early Old Georgian in the 5th century, to Modern Georgian today. Its development as a written language began with the Christianization of Georgia in

832-614: Is notable for its glaciers and picturesque summits. Svaneti's signature peak is probably Mount Ushba which towers over the Inguri Gorge and can be seen from many parts of the region. The climate of Svaneti is humid and is influenced by the air masses coming in from the Black Sea throughout the year. Average temperatures and precipitation vary considerably with elevation. Annual precipitation ranges between 1000 and 3200  mm (39 and 126 inches). The highest amount of precipitation falls on

884-998: Is rather light, and in fact Georgian transliterates the tenuis stops in foreign words and names with the ejectives. The coronal occlusives ( /tʰ tʼ d n/ , not necessarily affricates) are variously described as apical dental, laminal alveolar, and "dental". Per Canepari, the main realizations of the vowels are [ i ], [ e̞ ], [ ä ], [ o̞ ], [ u ]. Aronson describes their realizations as [ i̞ ], [ e̞ ], [ ä ] (but "slightly fronted"), [ o̞ ], [ u̞ ]. Shosted transcribed one speaker's pronunciation more-or-less consistently with [ i ], [ ɛ ], [ ɑ ], [ ɔ ], [ u ]. Allophonically, [ ə ] may be inserted to break up consonant clusters, as in /dɡas/ [dəɡäs] . In casual speech, /iV, Vi/ sequences can be realized phonetically as [jV~i̯V, Vj~Vi̯]. Phrase-final unstressed vowels may sometimes be partially reduced. Prosody in Georgian involves stress, intonation, and rhythm. Stress

936-647: Is the highest inhabited area in the Caucasus . Four of the 10 highest peaks of the Caucasus are located in the region. The highest mountain in Georgia, Mount Shkhara at 5,201 meters (17,059 feet), is located in the province. Prominent peaks include Tetnuldi (4,974 m / 16,319 ft), Shota Rustaveli (4,960 m / 16,273 ft), Mount Ushba (4,710 m / 15,453 ft), Ailama (4,525 m / 14,842 ft), as well as Lalveri , Latsga and others. Svaneti has two parts corresponding to two inhabited valleys: They are separated by

988-415: Is the most widely spoken Kartvelian language ; it serves as the literary language or lingua franca for speakers of related languages. It is the official language of Georgia and the native or primary language of 88% of its population. Its speakers today amount to approximately 3.8 million. Georgian is written with its own unique Georgian scripts , alphabetical systems of unclear origin. Georgian

1040-401: Is very weak, and linguists disagree as to where stress occurs in words. Jun, Vicenik, and Lofstedt have proposed that Georgian stress and intonation are the result of pitch accents on the first syllable of a word and near the end of a phrase. According to Borise, Georgian has fixed initial word-level stress cued primarily by greater syllable duration and intensity of the initial syllable of

1092-452: The Dittionario giorgiano e italiano . These were meant to help western Catholic missionaries learn Georgian for evangelical purposes. On the left are IPA symbols, and on the right are the corresponding letters of the modern Georgian alphabet, which is essentially phonemic. Former /qʰ/ ( ჴ ) has merged with /x/ ( ხ ), leaving only the latter. The glottalization of the ejectives

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1144-494: The Mkhedruli script is almost completely dominant; the others are used mostly in religious documents and architecture. Mkhedruli has 33 letters in common use; a half dozen more are obsolete in Georgian, though still used in other alphabets, like Mingrelian, Laz, and Svan. The letters of Mkhedruli correspond closely to the phonemes of the Georgian language. According to the traditional account written down by Leonti Mroveli in

1196-506: The Georgian Orthodox Church and together are called Khutsuri 'priest alphabet'. In Mkhedruli , there is no case. Sometimes, however, a capital-like effect, called Mtavruli ('title' or 'heading'), is achieved by modifying the letters so that their vertical sizes are identical and they rest on the baseline with no descenders. These capital-like letters are often used in page headings, chapter titles, monumental inscriptions, and

1248-595: The Greater Caucasus Mountains. The region is characterized by very heavy snowfall in the winter and avalanches are a frequent occurrence. Snow cover may reach 5 meters (16.4 feet) in some areas. In general, the lowest regions of Svaneti (800–1200 meters / 2624–3936 feet above sea level) are characterized by long, warm summers and relatively cold and snowy winters. Middle altitudes (1200–1800 meters above sea level) experience relatively warm summers and cold winters. Areas above 2000 meters above sea level lie within

1300-452: The Kartlian dialect. Over the centuries, it has exerted a strong influence on the other dialects. As a result, they are all, generally, mutually intelligible with standard Georgian, and with one another. The history of the Georgian language is conventionally divided into the following phases: The earliest extant references to Georgian are found in the writings of Marcus Cornelius Fronto ,

1352-557: The Kingdom of Abkhazia ( John and Adarnase of the Shavliani dynasty, 871–893) to form a unified monarchy which was incorporated into the Kingdom of Georgia in the early 11th century. Svanetia became a duchy ( saeristavo ) within it, governed by a duke ( eristavi ). The province's Orthodox culture flourished particularly during the Georgian “golden age” under Queen Tamar (r. 1184–1213), who

1404-645: The Soanes mentioned by Greek geographer Strabo , who placed them more or less in the area still occupied by the modern-day Svans. The province had been a dependency of Colchis , and of its successor kingdom of Lazica (Egrisi) until AD 552, when the Svans took advantage of the Lazic War , repudiated this connection and went over to the Persians . The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity notes that "this seems to have reflected

1456-582: The Svaneti Range which is almost as high as the main Caucasus range. Historical Svaneti also included the Kodori Gorge in the adjoining rebel province of Abkhazia , and part of the adjacent river valleys of Kuban and Baksan north of the crest of the Caucasus. Writing in 1848, Bodenstedt said that Upper Svaneti could only be reached by a difficult footpath that was closed in winter. The landscape of Svaneti

1508-403: The 11th century, the first Georgian script was created by the first ruler of the Kingdom of Iberia , Pharnavaz , in the 3rd century BC. The first examples of a Georgian script date from the 5th century AD. There are now three Georgian scripts, called Asomtavruli 'capitals', Nuskhuri 'small letters', and Mkhedruli . The first two are used together as upper and lower case in the writings of

1560-636: The 1460s, fighting broke out for controlling the province. Part of Upper Svanetia formed an independent principality under the Princes Dadeshkeliani , a branch of the Gelovani family, while Lower Svanetia, originally ruled by the Princes Gelovani, was temporarily usurped and subdued by the Mingrelian princes Dadiani . Facing serious internal conflict, Prince Tsioq’ Dadeshkeliani of Svanetia signed

1612-548: The 4th century. Georgian phonology features a rich consonant system, including aspirated, voiced, and ejective stops , affricates , and fricatives . Its vowel system consists of five vowels with varying realizations. Georgian prosody involves weak stress, with disagreements among linguists on its placement. The language's phonotactics include complex consonant clusters and harmonic clusters. The Mkhedruli script , dominant in modern usage, corresponds closely to Georgian phonemes and has no case distinction, though it employs

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1664-449: The 4th-6th centuries. However, some remnants of old paganism have been maintained. Saint George (known as Jgëræg to the locals), a patron saint of Georgia, is the most respected saint. The Svans have retained many of their old traditions, including blood revenge. Their families are small, and the husband is the head of his family. Typically bilingual, they use both Georgian and their own, unwritten Svan language , which together with

1716-478: The Free Svan communities enjoyed self-rule. Common matters were discussed at popular councils, attended by both men and women above 20; the elders from different communities at times convened at Ushguli. This alliance between the Svan clans was based on common interests in joint self-defence, in protecting common property such as pastures and churches, and in safeguarding social order based on the traditional law. The alliance

1768-522: The Georgian Special Forces as of March 2004 resulted in significant improvement of the situation. The Svans, the indigenous population of Svanetia, are an ethnic subgroup of the Georgians . Until the 1930s, Mingrelians and Svans had their own census grouping, but were classified under the broader category of Georgian thereafter. They are Georgian Orthodox Christians, and were Christianized in

1820-568: The Georgian language ( ქართული ენის განმარტებითი ლექსიკონი ). It consists of eight volumes and about 115,000 words. It was produced between 1950 and 1964, by a team of linguists under the direction of Arnold Chikobava . Georgian has a word derivation system, which allows the derivation of nouns from verb roots both with prefixes and suffixes, for example: It is also possible to derive verbs from nouns: Likewise, verbs can be derived from adjectives, for example: In Georgian many nouns and adjectives begin with two or more contiguous consonants. This

1872-506: The Georgian, Mingrelian , and Laz languages constitute the South Caucasian or Kartvelian language family. Svanetia is known for its architectural treasures and picturesque landscapes. The botany of Svanetia is legendary among travelers. The famous Svanetian tower houses , erected mainly in the 9th-12th centuries, make the region's villages more attractive. With a high quantity of these unique houses and exceptional preservation of

1924-609: The Russian army units eventually crushed the rebels burning their stronghold Khalde to the ground in 1876. Part of the Russian governorate of Kutais , Svanetia was divided into two raions (districts) — Mestia (former Sethi) and Lentekhi — under the Soviet rule. The unsuccessful anti-Soviet Svaneti uprising took place in the region in 1921. In 1987, avalanches destroyed several homes and killed at least 80, many of them schoolchildren. In

1976-579: The Russian authority and were organized into the Malakho-Iparsky circuit administered by a bailiff ( pristav ). The Svans proved to be unruly, however, and two years later, in February 1849, the bailiff Prince Aleksandr Mikeladze was forced into flight to Mingrelia. The Free Svans were, consequently, delisted as Russian subjects until they renewed their quest for imperial protection and allowed Mikeladze to come back in 1853. On his return to Svaneti, Mikeladze

2028-754: The aftermath the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union passed a decree to resettle some 2,500 families to districts of eastern Georgia (eco-migration to Marneuli , Tetritskaro , Bolnisi , Sagarejo , Gardabani , Dmanisi , Kaspi , Tskaltubo , Khoni , Ozurgeti , and Lanchkhuti rayons). The end of the Soviet Union and subsequent Georgian Civil War created severe socioeconomic problems in

2080-403: The character of the verb). This is called the dative construction . In the past tense of the transitive verbs, and in the present tense of the verb "to know", the subject is in the ergative case. Georgian has a rich word-derivation system. By using a root, and adding some definite prefixes and suffixes, one can derive many nouns and adjectives from the root. For example, from the root - kart -,

2132-452: The current Mkhedruli, used for most purposes. The language has a robust grammatical framework with unique features such as syncope in morphophonology and a left-branching syntax. Georgian's vocabulary is highly derivational, allowing for diverse word formations, while its numeric system is vigesimal. No claimed genetic links between the Kartvelian languages and any other language family in

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2184-498: The following words can be derived: Kart veli ('a Georgian person'), Kart uli ('the Georgian language') and Sa kart velo ('the country of Georgia'). Most Georgian surnames end in - dze 'son' (Western Georgia), - shvili 'child' (Eastern Georgia), - ia (Western Georgia, Samegrelo ), - ani (Western Georgia, Svaneti ), - uri (Eastern Georgia), etc. The ending - eli is a particle of nobility, comparable to French de , Dutch van , German von or Polish - ski . Georgian has

2236-498: The like. This is the Georgian standard keyboard layout. The standard Windows keyboard is essentially that of manual typewriters . Georgian is an agglutinative language . Certain prefixes and suffixes can be joined in order to build a verb. In some cases, one verb can have up to eight different morphemes in it at the same time. An example is ageshenebinat ('you [all] should've built [it]'). The verb can be broken down to parts: a-g-e-shen-eb-in-a-t . Each morpheme here contributes to

2288-472: The meaning of the verb tense or the person who has performed the verb. The verb conjugation also exhibits polypersonalism ; a verb may potentially include morphemes representing both the subject and the object. In Georgian morphophonology , syncope is a common phenomenon. When a suffix (especially the plural suffix - eb -) is attached to a word that has either of the vowels a or e in the last syllable, this vowel is, in most words, lost. For example, megob

2340-670: The princely dynasties of the Dadishkeliani of Svaneti and the Dadiani of Mingrelia , which had emerged following the dissolution of the Kingdom of Georgia in the late 15th century. The Free Svan society was devoid of typical feudalism, with no single family rising to prominence, although the distinction between nobles ( warg , aznauri ) and peasants retained considerable significance in social and economic life. The noble families of note were Charkviani, Kipiani, Goshteliani, Japaridze, Ioseliani, Kurdiani, Zhorzholiani, and Devdariani. Each of

2392-533: The region. While the Svanetian population resisted the unpleasant conditions of the high mountain environment they lived in for centuries, the increasing economic difficulties of the last two decades and frequent natural disasters — floods and landslides as of April 2005 ( [1] ) have brought about a strong tendency towards migration. The province became a safe haven for criminals threatening local residents and tourists. Large-scale anti-criminal operations carried out by

2444-617: The replacement of Aramaic as the literary language . By the 11th century, Old Georgian had developed into Middle Georgian. The most famous work of this period is the epic poem The Knight in the Panther's Skin , written by Shota Rustaveli in the 12th century. In 1629, a certain Nikoloz Cholokashvili authored the first printed books written (partially) in Georgian, the Alphabetum Ibericum sive Georgianum cum Oratione and

2496-399: The world are accepted in mainstream linguistics. Among the Kartvelian languages, Georgian is most closely related to the so-called Zan languages ( Megrelian and Laz ); glottochronological studies indicate that it split from the latter approximately 2700 years ago. Svan is a more distant relative that split off much earlier, perhaps 4000 years ago. Standard Georgian is largely based on

2548-476: Was accompanied by Colonel Ivan Bartolomei , a history enthusiast, who left one of the first accounts of medieval Georgian and Byzantine antiquities safeguarded in the old churches of Free Svaneti. There was no Russian military presence in Free Svaneti until the 1870s. In 1875 the Svans resisted the government's survey of peasant-owned land and livestock for taxation purposes. As a result, General Tsytovich 's force

2600-471: Was cemented by an oath of unity which was renewed every three years and was to be taken "on an icon", that is, in the presence of the sacred image of a Christian saint. From the early 1830s the Free Svan clans sought Russian protection against the Dadishkeliani, but refused to admit officials and priests sent to them. In the early 1840s, the Russian government of the Caucasus dispatched Nikoloz Kutateladze,

2652-596: Was deployed. A Russian detachment attacked the rebel stronghold of Khalde and was routed. A larger force, supported by artillery, took the village by storm on 27 August 1876. Khalde's 19 defense towers were destroyed, while the captives were exiled to Siberia . Thereafter, the Russians rule was tightened, with appointed headmen. Free Svaneti was no more a distinct entity, but the term survived in ethnographic literature. Upper Svaneti Svaneti or Svanetia ( Svan : შუ̂ან, ლემშუ̂ანიერა shwan, lemshwaniera, Suania in ancient sources; Georgian : სვანეთი Svaneti )

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2704-525: Was respected almost as a goddess by the Svanetians. The legend has it that the duchy was annually visited by Tamar. The Svans had been known as fierce warriors for centuries. Their inflatable war banner was named Lemi (Lion) because of its shape. The marauding Mongols never reached Svanetia and, for a time, the region became a cultural safe house. Following the final disintegration of the Kingdom of Georgia in

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