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18-795: 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 the Mingrelia (or Samegrelo and formerly Odishi ) region of Georgia, which comprises the Odishi Hills and the Colchis Lowlands , from the Black Sea coast to the Svan Mountains and the Tskhenistskali River . Smaller enclaves existed in Abkhazia , but

36-423: A Mingrelian-German dictionary by Otar Kajaia and Heinz Fähnrich , and books of poems by Lasha Gakharia , Edem Izoria , Lasha Gvasalia , Guri Otobaia , Giorgi Sichinava , Jumber Kukava , and Vakhtang Kharchilava , journal Skani , Mingrelian wikipedia, as well as books and magazines published by Jehovah's Witnesses. Mingrelian has five primary vowels a , e , i , o , u . The Zugdidi-Samurzaqano dialect has

54-492: A phonetic analysis by Aleksandre Tsagareli (1880), and grammars by Ioseb Kipshidze (1914) and Shalva Beridze (1920). From 1930 to 1938 several newspapers were published in Mingrelian, such as Kazakhishi Gazeti , Komuna , Samargalosh Chai , Narazenish Chai , and Samargalosh Tutumi . More recently, there has been some revival of the language, with the publication of a Mingrelian–Georgian dictionary by Otar Kajaia ,

72-403: A sixth, ə , which is the result of reduction of i and u . The consonant inventory of Mingrelian is almost identical to that of Laz , Georgian , and Svan . Certain pairs of vowels reduce to single vowels: In Zugdidi-Samurzaqano dialect the vowels i and u also often reduce to ə . Before consonants, g → r . In word-initial prevocalic and intervocalic positions, q' → ʔ . Before

90-429: A stem with voiceless affricates or voiceless sibilants, a later ǯ is deaffricated to d , e.g. orcxondji dj orcxondi "comb", ç̌andji dj ç̌andi "fly (insect)", isindji dj isindi "arrow", etc. Between the vowels the organic v disappears, e.g. xvavi (Geo. "abundance, plenty") → * xvai → xvee (id.), mṭevani (Geo. "raceme") → ţiani (id.), etc. Before

108-518: Is believed to have branched off in the 2nd millennium BC or earlier. Mingrelian is mutually intelligible only with Laz . Some linguists refer to Mingrelian and Laz as Zan languages . 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 oldest surviving texts in Mingrelian date from the 19th century, and are mainly items of ethnographical literature. The earliest linguistic studies of Mingrelian include

126-531: The Soviet Union , as the Georgian SSR . On 9 April 1991, independence was restored to Georgia, of which Mingrelia is now part. The first President of the post-Soviet Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia , was a Megrelian. After the violent coup d'etat of 21 December 1991 – 6 January 1992, Mingrelia became the centre of a civil war, which ended with the defeat of Gamsakhurdia's Megrelian supporters. Even so, this region

144-585: The conflict with the breakaway region of Abkhazia, disarmed groups of Megrelians who tried to fight a guerrilla war against the Abkhazians by incursions from Mingrelia. Martvili Martvili ( Georgian : მარტვილი ) is a small town in Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti province of Western Georgia . Its monastery was Samegrelo's clerical centre in the Middle Ages . Under Soviet rule, from 1936 to 1990, it

162-415: The consonant v , q' → ɣ/ǩ . The common types are: If the stem contains r 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 with r an l appears later, e.g. marṫvili (" Martvili ", the town) dj marṫvil-ur-i (adj. "Martvilian") In

180-536: The country. For this reason, substantial part of the territories is protected by the Georgian law as part of the Colchetian Nature Reserve. In ancient times Mingrelia was a major part of the kingdom of Colchis (9th-6th centuries BC ) and its successor Egrisi (4th century BC-6th century AD ). In the 11th-15th centuries, Mingrelia was a part of the united Kingdom of Georgia . From the 16th century to 1857,

198-656: The independent Kingdom of Mingrelia was under the rule of the House of Dadiani . Between 1568 and 1803, it was vassal of Ottoman Empire. In December 1803, the kingdom came under the patronage of the Russian Empire by an agreement between the Tsar and the Megrelian Prince Grigol Dadiani . The last adult Prince, David Dadiani, died in 1853, leaving his wife Ekaterine as regent for his young son, Niko . However, in 1867,

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216-514: The local official language) for other purposes. Mingrelian is one of the Kartvelian languages . It is closely related to Laz , 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 to Svan , which

234-543: The northern part of the neighboring mountainous province of Svaneti to form the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region, the capital of which is Mingrelia's main city, Zugdidi . As it is the case with most Black Sea coastal areas of Georgia, Mingrelia's climate is subtropical with frequent rains. The coastal areas have many marshlands despite the Soviet Georgian authorities' efforts to dry them up. These marshlands contain many rare birds and animals not found in other parts of

252-545: 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 the Georgian alphabet , but it has no written standard or official status. Almost all speakers are bilingual; they use Mingrelian mainly for familiar and informal conversation, and Georgian (or, for expatriate speakers,

270-658: The principality was abolished and absorbed into the Tsarist Russian Empire. Prince Niko Dadiani officially renounced his rights to the throne in 1868. Plant specimens of Astrantia colchica were found on Mt. Kwira in Mingrelia in 1894 by the Russian botanist Nikolai Albov . From 1918 to 1921, Mingrelia was part of the Democratic Republic of Georgia (DRG). In 1921, Georgia was Sovietized and later became part of

288-459: The stops and affricates, an inorganic augmentation n may appear (before labials n → m ). Mingrelian is written in Mkhedruli , Latin and Cyrillic . The main dialects and subdialects of Mingrelian are: Mingrelia Mingrelia or Samegrelo ( Georgian : სამეგრელო , romanized : samegrelo ; Mingrelian : სამარგალო , romanized:  samargalo ) is a historic province in

306-456: The western part of Georgia , formerly known as Odishi . It is primarily inhabited by the Mingrelians , a subgroup of Georgians . Mingrelia is bordered by the secessionist region of Abkhazia to the north-west, Svaneti to the north, Imereti to the east, Guria to the south and the Black Sea to the west. Administratively, the historic province of Mingrelia is incorporated joined with

324-549: Was unmanageable by the central government throughout the presidency of Eduard Shevardnadze (1992–2003). The fact that the Georgian refugees from the Abkhazian war zone (who are considered by Georgians as victims of ethnic cleansing) are mostly Mingrelians has contributed to the region's instability. In 2004, following the Rose Revolution of November 2003, newly elected Georgian President, Mikheil Saakashvili , who vowed to resolve

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