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Mingrelian
მარგალურ ნინა margalur nina
Spoken in: Mingrelia
Total speakers: 500,000 (1989)
Language family: South Caucasian
 Zan
  Mingrelian
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: –
ISO 639-3: xmf
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Megrelia, Mingrelia or Samegrelo / Samargalo (სამეგრელო Samegrelo; Mingrelian: სამარგალო Samargalo List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The South Caucasian languages (also known as Ibero-Caucasian or Kartvelian) are spoken primarily in Georgia, with smaller groups of speakers in Turkey The Zan language, or Zanuri, is a conventional term used by some linguists to describe the unity of Mingrelian and Laz, which are the closest ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

Mingrelian, or Megrelian (მარგალურ ნინა, margalur nina; Georgian: მეგრული ენა, megruli ena), is a language spoken in northwest Georgia. Georgian (ka ქართული ენა kartuli ena) is the Official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus. A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them Georgia ( საქართველო, Sakartvelo) is a Transcontinental country in the Caucasus region situated at the dividing line between The language was also called Iverian (Georgian iveriuli ena) in the early 20th century. It is spoken mostly by the Mingrelians, a regional subgroup of the Georgian people. The Mingrelians ( Mingrelian: მარგალი margali; მეგრელები megrelebi) are a subethnic group of Georgians that The Georgians (ქართველები kartvelebi) are a Nation and Ethnic group originating in the Caucasus, the oldest group of the Its ISO 639-3 code is xmf. ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages

Contents

Distribution and status

No reliable figures exist for the number of Mingrelian native speakers, but it is estimated to be between 300,000 and 600,000. Most speakers live in the Samegrelo (Mingrelia) region of Georgia, that comprises the Odishi Hills and the Kolkheti Lowlands, from the Black Sea coast to the Svan Mountains and the Tskhenistskali River. Megrelia, Mingrelia or Samegrelo / Samargalo (სამეგრელო Samegrelo; Mingrelian: სამარგალო Samargalo The Black Sea is an inland Sea bounded by southeastern Europe, the Caucasus and the Anatolian peninsula ( Turkey Smaller enclaves existed in the autonomous Georgian republic of Abkhazia, but the ongoing civil unrest there has caused many Mingrelian speakers emigrate, mostly to Georgia. Abkhazia (Аҧсны Apsny აფხაზეთი Apkhazeti or Abkhazeti Абха́зия Abhazia) is a De facto Their geographical distribution is relatively compact, which has helped to promote the transmission of the language between generations.

Megrelian is generally written with the Georgian alphabet, but has no written standard or official status. The Georgian alphabet (ქართული დამწერლობა is the writing system currently used to write the Georgian language and other South Caucasian Almost all speakers are bilingual; they use Mingrelian mainly for familiar and informal conversation, and Georgian (or, for expatriate speakers, the local official language) for other purposes. Georgian (ka ქართული ენა kartuli ena) is the Official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus.

History

Mingrelian is one of the South Caucasian or Kartvelian languages. The South Caucasian languages (also known as Ibero-Caucasian or Kartvelian) are spoken primarily in Georgia, with smaller groups of speakers in Turkey It is closely related to Laz, from which it has differentiated mostly in the last 500 years, after the northern (Mingrelian) and southern (Laz) communities were separated by Turkic invasions. The Laz language (ლაზური ნენა lazuri nena; ლაზური lazuri, or ჭანური chanuri) is spoken by the Laz people It is somewhat 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 is believed to have branched off in the 2nd millennium BC or earlier). The Svan language (ლუშნუ ნინ/შკა̈ნ lušnu nin/šḳän; სვანური ენა svanuri ena) is a language spoken in Northwest Mingrelian is not mutually intelligible with any of those other languages, although it is said that its speakers can recognize many Laz words. In Linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between Languages in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand

Some linguists refer to Mingrelian and Laz as dialects of a single Zan language. The Zan language, or Zanuri, is a conventional term used by some linguists to describe the unity of Mingrelian and Laz, which are the closest 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 ethnographical literature. The earliest linguistic studies of Mingrelian include 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 Kazaxishi Gazeti, Komuna, Samargalosh Chai, Narazenish Chai, and Samargalosh Tutumi. More recently, there has been some revival of the language, with the publication of dictionaries — Mingrelian-Georgian by Otar Kajaia, and Mingrelian-German by Otar Kajaia and Heinz Fähnrich — and poetry books by Lasha Gaxaria, Guri Otobaia, Giorgi Sichinava, Jumber Kukava, and Vaxtang Xarchilava.

Dialects

The main dialects and sub-dialects of Mingrelian are:

Famous speakers

References

External links

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