Georgian language
Georgian is a Kartvelian language spoken chiefly in Georgia. It is the country’s official language and is written in the Georgian script.
Georgian script: The writing system used for Georgian, with three historical forms: Asomtavruli, Nuskhuri, and Mkhedruli. Its modern form, Mkhedruli, is the script used to write Georgian today.
Georgian verb: A Georgian part of speech marked by complex patterns of person, number, tense, aspect, and mood. Verb forms carry much of the grammatical information that other languages may express with separate words.
Old Georgian: The historical stage of Georgian documented in texts from the early centuries of the Common Era through the medieval period. Its religious and literary texts provide the earliest substantial record of Georgian.
Georgian literature: Literary works written in Georgian, spanning medieval religious writing, poetry, and modern prose. Georgian literature has helped sustain a written tradition across major political and cultural changes.
Armenian language: An independent Indo-European language spoken chiefly in Armenia and by Armenian communities worldwide. It is a neighboring national language, but belongs to a different language family.
Kartvelian languages: A language family indigenous to the Caucasus, including Georgian, Mingrelian, Laz, and Svan. Georgian belongs to this family, whose members are unrelated to neighboring Indo-European and Turkic languages.
Georgian case system: The system of noun forms that marks grammatical relations in Georgian sentences. Case marking helps identify agents, objects, and other roles, with patterns that vary across verb series.
Georgian inscriptions of Palestine: Early Georgian inscriptions discovered at sites in Palestine, including evidence of Georgian presence beyond the Caucasus. These inscriptions attest to Georgian writing and communities outside Georgia in late antiquity.
Georgian Orthodox Church: An autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church and a major religious institution in Georgia. Church institutions and religious texts helped preserve Georgian literacy and literary production.
Azerbaijani language: A Turkic language spoken chiefly in Azerbaijan and by communities in neighboring countries. Its Turkic ancestry contrasts with Georgian’s indigenous Kartvelian lineage.