L1: Parts of Speech and Cases in Georgian

Georgian is considered as one of the hardest verbs. Let's see what kinds of words Georgian has to offer us.

Georgian has 10 parts of speech, unlike English, which has 8 (some sources say 9). Here they are:

1) არსებითი სახელი - Noun (lit. Name/Unit that is (connected to) living being)

2) ზედსართავი სახელი - Adjective (lit. Name/Unit that is/has to be placed on top)

3) რიცხვითი სახელი - Numeral (lit. Name/Unit that is (connected to) numbers)

4) ნაცვალსახელი - Pronoun (lit. (A thing that is) substituted name/unit)

5) ზმნა - Verb (Possibly translated fr. Arabic, meaning 'doing', 'making')

6) ზმნიზედა - Adverb (lit. (A thing that is) topping/on top of a verb)

7) თანდებული - Postposition (lit. (A thing that is) next to/near something)

8) კავშირი - Conjunction (lit. Connection)

9) ნაწილაკი - Particle (lit. Particle. Diminutive of Georgian word for part)

10) შორისდებული - Interjection (Possibly (a thing that is) placed in a long distance)

Well, you already know the examples to each of them. We will learn each one by one. For now, let's see how these are grouped. General groupings first consist of how each is grouped into 3 categories:

1) სახელები - არსებითი, ზედსართავი, რიცხვითი და ნაცვალსახელი

2) ზმნა

3) დანარჩენი (The rest))

Changing happens to verbs and names, verbs change through categories, screeves, persons, while names change by number and cases. Verb conjugation will, of course, be super early for now! I will go into it slowly, but surely, however simple phrases and verbs we will learn, such that you will be able to introduce yourself. Let's discuss cases now, just a little touch to not get you too confused. There are 7 cases in Georgian and they are as follows:

1) სახელობითი - Nominative (სახელ-ი + -ობ- + -ით-ი, lit. Nominative, related to 'names')

2) მოთხრობითი - Ergative (მოთხრობ-ა + -ით-ი, lit. related to storytelling, stories)

3) მიცემითი - Dative (მიცემ-ა + -ით-ი, lit. related to giving)

4) ნათესაობითი - Genitive (ნათესავ-ი + -ობ- + -ით-ი, lit. related to relatives/relativity)*

5) მოქმედებითი - Instrumental (მოქმედებ-ა + -ით-ი, lit. related to action/activity)

6) ვითარებითი - Adverbial (ვითარებ-ა + -ით-ი, lit. related to state/stativity)

7) წოდებითი - Vocative (წოდებ-ა + -ით-ი, lit. related to titling/title)

Additional information I'd like to include, though it not being necessary, is that case in Georgian is called ბრუნვა, which means 'turning, spinning', which I, kind of, like. The use of cases will be discussed one by one, separately in later lessons, until then have fun!

That's it for this lesson, thank you for reading.

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*I wanted to add this additional information for those, who like knowing things. The name for genitive in Georgian comes possibly from a mistranslation. When translating the case names into Georgian, they translated origin (which possibly should've been გვარობა) into relative (ნათესავი/ნათესაობა). To me, both names actually match the use of genitive, which expresses the origin, relative of the word it describes, but that's really it. The word ნათესაობა got it's ვ removed because of the ო next to it.