Megrelian is a Kartvelian language spoken in Western Georgia, primarily by the Megrelians. The language was also called Iverian in the early 20th century. Since Mingrelian has historically been only a regional language within boundaries of both historical Georgian states and modern Georgia, the number of younger people speaking it has decreased substantially, with UNESCO designating it as a "definitely endangered language".
Distribution and status
No reliable figures exist for the number of Mingrelian native speakers, but it is estimated to be between 300,000 and 500,000. Most speakers live in the Samegrelo region of Georgia, which comprises the Odishi Hills and the Kolkheti Lowlands, from the BlackSea coast to the Svan Mountains and the Tskhenistskali River. Smaller enclaves existed in Abkhazia, but 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 with the Georgian alphabet, but has no written standard or official status. Almost all speakers are bilingual; they use Mingrelian mainly for familiar and informal conversation, and Georgian for other purposes. In the summer of 1999, books of the Georgian poet Murman Lebanidze were burned in the Mingrelian capital, Zugdidi, after he made disparaging remarks about the Mingrelian language.
History
Mingrelian is one of the Kartvelian languages. It is closely related to Laz, from which it has differentiated mostly in the last 500 years, after the northern and southern communities were separated by Turkic invasions. It is somewhat less closely related to Georgian and even more distantly related to Svan. Mingrelian is not mutually intelligible with any of those other languages, although it is said that its speakers can recognize many Laz words. Some linguists refer to Mingrelian and Laz as grouped within the 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 ethnographical literature. The earliest linguistic studies of Mingrelian include a phonetic analysis by Aleksandre Tsagareli, and grammars by Ioseb Kipshidze and Shalva Beridze. 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 dictionaries—Mingrelian–Georgian by Otar Kajaia, and Mingrelian-German by Otar Kajaia and Heinz Fähnrich—and poetry books by Lasha Gakharia, Edem Izoria, Lasha Gvasalia, Guri Otobaia, Giorgi Sichinava, Jumber Kukava, and Vakhtang Kharchilava, as well as books and magazines published by Jehovah's Witnesses.
Phonology
Vowels
Mingrelian has five primary vowels a, e, i, o, u. The Zugdidi-Samurzaqano dialect has a sixth, ə, which is the result of reduction of i and u.
voicing/devoicing of voiceless/voiced consonants before voiced/voiceless ones.
glottalization of consonants before the glottalized ones and the glottal stop.
Progressive dissimilation
If the stem contains r then the suffixes -ar and -ur transform to -al and -ul, e.g. xorga → xorg-ul-i. The rule is not valid if in the stem with r an l appears later, e.g. marṭvili → marṭvil-ur-i In a stem with voiceless affricates or voiceless sibilants, a later ǯ is deaffricated to d, e.g. orcxonǯi → orcxondi "comb", č'anǯi → č'andi "fly ", isinǯi → isindi "arrow", etc.
The transformation of ''l''
in all dialects of Mingrelian, before consonants l → r.
in the Martvili subdialect in word-initial prevocalic position, l → y → ∅ and in intervocalic position l → ∅
Intervocalic deletion of ''v''
Between the vowels the organic v disappears, e.g. xvavi → *xvai → xvee, mṭevani → ṭiani, etc.
Phonetic augmentation ''n''
Before the stops and affricates, an inorganic augmentation n may appear.
