Phonetic Occurrences and Spelling Rules in Georgian

Now I'm no linguist, so I don't really know what to call this change which affected writing in general and made words 'evolve'. Georgian phonetic occurrences and spelling/sound change rules are big, but necessary, to see in what way some roots and words, which look irregular at first, are connected and also how they came into being from etymological perspective. This is an advanced topic, so please, if you aren't actually prepared don't tackle it at beginning, you can always come back. Coming back to this topic after learning verbs is also a good idea. Let's get started:

1) ბგერის გადასმა - Metathesis This is a change, when a letter in a word changes place. For example, eighteen in Georgian follows tens system and is 10+8 (We'll learn this in detail in a lesson about numbers.), which should be ათ-რვა-მეტი, this changed in Modern Georgian into თ-ვრა-მეტი

(ა disappearance is another change). As you can see ვ and რ switched places.

This phenomenon mostly happens when ნ, რ, ლ (These three sounds are called ნარნარა ბგერები) should be followed by ვ, but is not now. Other examples include verb "infinitives" (This will be discussed in a later lesson) such as კვლა (<- კლ-ვა <- კლ-ავ-ს); ხვნა (<- ხნ-ვა <- ხნ-ავ-ს); etc.

2) ბგერის შენაცვლება - Substitution This is a change, when there is an expected letter and instead of it some other shows up. Let's take the word ბზე, where it's stored should be საბზელი (სა-ელი affix) however substitution happened and we got საბძელი (ზ -> ძ). This also may have happened with an active sound change rule (Now nonexistent) in verb prefix ჰ, which changed into ს in some instances.

3) ასიმილაცია - Assimilation

This is a change, when one sound is assimilated/made similar to another sound. There are two types of assimilation: full/complete or partial.

Full assimilation is a kind of assimilation, when one letter becomes exactly like the one, which affected it. For this type, the example would be სიმშილი.(სი)-ილი is an affix, that makes verb a noun like in სიკვდილი (death), however in the example above the affix's ს was affected by root's შ and assimilated into შ. By this change word became შიმშილი (hunger).

Partial assimilation is a kind of assimilation, when one letter changes because of another, but does not become that letter. For this type, the example would be ჭისკარი (from ბჭის კარი). Because of the ჭ, ს became a შ and we got the word ჭიშკარი (gate).

4) დისიმილაცია - Dissimilation

This is a change, when one sound becomes less similar with the influence of another.

Dissimilation in Georgian happens mostly to the letter რ which gets dissimilated to ლ due to another რ present in the word. This dissimilation may and mostly happens in suffixes. Let's see examples with the suffix -ური:

ინგლის-ი -> ინგლის-ური; კახ-ეთი -> კახ-ური...

however when a რ is present in the main root:

სა-ქართვ-ელო -> ქართ-ული (ვ removal will be discussed later); ღორ-ი -> ღორ-ული.

This phenomenon has two rules which, are mostly followed:

1) Change does not happen if after root რ comes ლ:

მორალ-ი -> მორალ-ური; ქართლ-ი -> ქართლ-ური...

2) Change does not happen for words created by doubling, or merged words:

არაფერი (<- არა - ფერი); როგორი (<- რა გვარი)...

Note: This change does not happen to terms, which recently entered the language like: დირექტორი; ტროტუარი; ტრაქტორი...

5) ბგერის დაკარგვა - Deletion

This is a change when a sound (or sounds) get deleted/removed in words, where you'd expect them to be. This could be because of speech evolution or some sound affecting the letter. Let's see some general examples and then more normal rules:

The word for mother's sister (or aunt) is დეიდა which comes from დედის და (meaning lit. mother's sister), here you can see დ and ს being removed. Another one would be მამიდა (<- მამის და, father's sister).

More frequent and normal deletion examples and rules include the following:

1) Deletion of the consonant ვ after labial consonants:

1) Before ო and უ. For example, the word თავი (head) can make many other words like თავ-ქუდ-მოგლეჯილი, however when a syllable (often from a suffix) contains ო/უ, that ვ is deleted, like in the word თაობა (<- თავ-ი + -ობა); მეთაური (<- მე- + თავ-ი + -ური); Also happens in verbs like კივის -> კიოდა; Even happens when ო is not directly touching it, like in თვრება -> დათრობა.

2) Before მ. The best example for this is ვიცვამ -> ტანსაცმელი (<- ტანს-სა-ცვ(ა)მ-ელი). Other examples are ვსვამ -> სასმელი (<- სა-სვ(ა)მ-ელი); უთქვამს -> თქმა.

2) Deletion of one consonant from double consonant cluster:

Examples for these are easy to find in compound words created by phrases, such as ტანისამოსი (<- ტანის სამოსი); ცისარტყელა (<- ცის სარტყელ-ი + -ა)...

Also in verbs and participles, such as

მადლობელი (<- მ-მადლობ-ელი); წავალ (<- წა-ვ-ვალ)...

This change happened in foreign words, which came into Georgian, such as

გრამატიკა (<- grammatica/грамматика); კასა (<- cassa/касса)...

3) Deletion of a consonant from a consonant cluster:

1) Deletion of ს:

1) Before თ:

In a consonant cluster, when ს is typically in CსC cluster where latter consonant is თ, it gets deleted. Examples include the postposition -თან which takes dative case -ს before it, however when a word's root ends with a consonant, it gets deleted:

სახლი -> სახლთან (<- სახლ-ს-თან), but: წყაროსთან (წყარო-ს-თან)...

2) Before ზ, შ and in some situations ძ:

With ზ and შ it being hard to pronounce. Examples include dative postpositions -ზე and -ში, which don't leave any trace of dative case suffix:

სახლი -> სახლზე/სახლში (<- სახლ-ს-ზე/სახლ-ს-ში); ხე -> ხეზე/ხეში (ხე-ს-ზე/ხე-ს-ში)...

This often happened in formation of surnames with -შვილი/-ძე:

გურამიშვილი (<- გურამის შვილი); სააკაძე (სააკას ძე)...

2) Uncommon მ and რ deletion (latter is more dialectal):

მ gets deleted in: ბრწყინვალე (<- მბრწყინვალე)

რ gets deleted in: მთელი <- მრთელი (Both Exist); ახალგაზდა (dial.) <- ახალგაზრდა

6) რედუქცია/სინკოპე - Reduction/Syncope.

Reduction is a big part of Georgian, because it takes part in how cases change words. Reduction in Georgian happens in 3 'weak' or 'floating' vowels: ა, ე, ო. Generally when ა and ე are reduced they fully disappear, while ო can undergo full or partial reduction. Full reduction means, that ო fully disappears, while partial means, that it leaves behind a ვ. This change in nouns, adjectives and verbs. In nouns and adjectives, reduction happening in the root (not at the outer vowels) is called კუმშვა in Georgian. Examples of this are:

მგელ-ი -> მგლ-ის (Gen.); სოფელ-ი -> სოფლ-ებ-ი (Pl.); მტერ-ი -> მტრ-ულ-ი (Adj. Suffix)

Partial Reduction Examples: მაწონ-ი -> მაწვნ-ის (Gen.); მოყვარე -> მოყვრ-ის (Gen.)...

7) კვეცა - Apocope

This is a change, when last vowel (more typically ა and ე) disappear due to inflection. With apocope, there's also a chance for syncope to happen also. Examples of apocope in Georgian:

დედა -> დედ-ები; ქვეყანა -> ქვეყნ-ის; სარკე -> სარკ-ით...

8) ჩართვა - Excrescence

This is an example of addition, when a letter (mostly ვ) appears to break two vowels. This consonant mostly breaks ი and ე from other vowels. Let's look at some examples:

ზე (Old word for upper/up, not used anymore in standard Georgian, only remains in dialects and as a postposition 'on') + -ით -> ზე-ვ-ით (However some dialects may drop the ვ)

This happens a lot with verbs created from nouns and nouns created from those verbs:

ქვა -> ა-ქვა-ვ-ებ-ს -> გა-ქვა-ვ-ებ-ა; ჯადო -> ა-ჯადო-ვ-ებ-ს -> მო-ჯადო-ვ-ება.

Letter ვ of the ო-ვ vowel pair may be pronounced or not (mostly weakly).

9) შერწყმა - Merging

This is a change when two letters overtime changed into different ones. This change is sometimes accompanied by reduction, deletion and so on. Let's look at examples:

დედა-უფალი -> დედოფალი (აუ -> ო merging);

There is also უა -> ვ or ო:

გუარი -> გვარი; რა-გუარი -> როგორი.

Apart from vowels, consonants also undergo merging (though quite obvious):

ათსამმეტი -> ცამეტი (ა loss, მმ simplification, თს -> ც merging);

ათშვიდმეტი -> ჩვიდმეტი (ა loss, თშ -> ჩ merging);

That's it for this exhaustive (for everyone) lesson. Thank you for reading. Hope you learned something interesting or useful from this.