Georgia, like the whole of the Caucasus, is an odyssey of languages. Here, too, many different cultures have come together over the centuries under various empires and rulers. This manifests itself in every region and corner of linguistic, confessional and ethnic diversity, creating a colorful socio-cultural mosaic that deserves to be well studied and researched.

More than ever, it is necessary to talk about and draw attention to Georgia's ethnic, linguistic, religious and cultural diversity. In recent years, events in the country and in the neighborhood, the increasingly homogeneous character of the country's foreign and domestic policies, the specific interference of the Church in politics, and many other factors have led to the rise and strengthening of right-wing groups, which have intensified their attitudes towards non-dominant groups and made them more stigmatized. The Kartvelian languages are also stigmatized - Megrelian and Svan, whose existence is known to everyone, although discussions about the importance of preserving them have not yet become relevant.

Languages are an integral part of Georgia's cultural mosaic. There are several families of languages, beginning with Iberian-Caucasian, Turkic-Alataurian, Indo-European and ending with the Semitic group. The official languages of Georgia are Georgian and Abkhazian. Abkhazian belongs to the group of Abkhaz-Adyghe languages, and Georgian belongs to the group of Georgian languages of the Iberian-Caucasian language family. There are three languages within this group: Georgian, Zan (Megrelian and Laz) and Svan. At present, none of them has official status.

“Chqini kochi Nasas” – Megrelian language

Despite the fact that Svan and Megrelian are Georgian languages, there are still many stereotypes and fears about them in Georgian academic, scientific, political and public spaces. "People who speak Megrelian, Laz and Svan languages ​​are the people about whom the writers and scientists of the ancient world wrote in a superior tone. Today, the thousands-year-old Megrelian-Laz and Svan languages ​​are on the verge of disappearing," writes writer Giorgi Jichonava, who created a petition for the support and development of the Megrelian, Laz and Svan languages. This petition aims to grant status to these languages ​​so that they can be protected and developed at the legislative level. So far, only words have remained the statement of the President of Georgia Salome Zurabishvili on the inclusion of Svanuri and Megrelian in schools: "Both Megrelian and Svan are our treasures, which we must protect and give the right place to. Everyone should have the opportunity to learn these languages ​​as an option at school, and we should not succumb to false fears!”

Today, the language of succumbing is widespread in the Samegrelo region and in Abkhazia, Gali and its districts. The state should make it clear that Megrelian and Laz, Svan and Tsova-Tush should be given language status. Megrelian is spoken by 500,000 people, but it is not mentioned in any normative act and no official documents are translated into Megrelian.

Linguist Natia Poniava tells us that in the Georgian scientific community Megrelian is considered linguistically as a language and socio-linguistically as a dialect. Since 2000, part of the Georgian scientific community does not recognize the linguistic data of the Megrelian language at all, but only recognizes one Georgian language - Georgian. "This is how state policy is structured, so Megrelian, Laz and Svan do not appear as languages in official documents, which means that on a legal level they have the status of a dialect," says Poniava.

According to her, there is an excessive fear of Megrelian in the Georgian society. "Before, I thought that lack of education, lack of awareness of the issue or lack of information caused this fear, however, even people with a high education from abroad and Georgia, approach the issue of the Megrelian language with certain fears. In other words, in this case, having a higher education does not solve the problem of the issue much." The same opinion is shared by Givi Karchava, an activist of the Megrelian language and the author of the first Megrelian magazine "Skani". According to him, these fears started before the 19th and 20th centuries.

"Fear is an irrational thing. Especially at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, propaganda was sown that we should be afraid of the separatism of Samegrelo." Ilia Chavchavadze said that when I got to Samegrelo, I saw Georgia. He came to Samegrelo just during the Russian Empire when there were attempts to introduce the Megrelian language and to translate the Holy Scriptures in the schools of Samegrelo. "Ilia Chavchavadze, Akaki Tsereteli, and Iakob Gogebashvili were worried that the Russian Empire did not take advantage of our linguistic difference to divide the nation and the country, which is completely understandable. But at the same time, none of them have taken into account the right of Megrelian-speaking people to have access to various services in their language, like other ethnolinguistic minorities of the country. This is a natural and inalienable human right," says Karchava.

He also tells us that in the "Sitkvis Kona" (სიტყვის კონა) of Sulkhan-Saba, the word "zhgurtuli" is interpreted as: the speech of the Megrelians and similar to them, the speech of chirks and magpies. He compares the language of the Megrelians with the language of magpies, crows and crickets. Vakhushti Batonishvili also calls Megrelian a rich Georgian language. In short, this is not a story of the 19th and 20th centuries, and we cannot blame everything on Russia. This (Georgian) society had and still has a problem with the Megrelians, and this is in history and should be studied more deeply.

Lucretius Sichinava, originally from Senaki, Samegrelo, and a student at the Literature Faculty of Ilia State University in Tbilisi, shares his opinion and says that Megrelian is not in danger of disappearing. According to him, in his neighbourhood in Senaki, small children and schoolchildren speak mostly Georgian, while the older generation speaks mostly Megrelian. In contrast, Givi Karchava says that in his village of Ingiri, his son and other young children do not know Megrelian well, and the number of Megrelian speakers is decreasing every year. There are many reasons for this, but one of the main ones is that the population is educated only in the language of communication - Georgian - and gradually loses the need for other languages, as well as the prestige of the language. This is not only a Georgian, but also a global trend.

Karchava tells us that a question is often asked about the fact that Megrelian has no script: how can it have the status of a language if it has no script? "Many languages do not have scripts, although they exist. When they say that not as much has been written in Megrelian as in Georgian, we should remember that when Georgian writings began to be published, so much was published in Greek, Chinese and other ancient languages, so does this mean that we should not have the right to print in Georgian?! According to Karchava, it will be difficult for Georgia to join the European family with such an attitude. "In Europe, people are not told that their linguistic identity is wrong or unacceptable. An important and huge part of my identity is Megrelian. I have been thinking and speaking since childhood, and I use the Megrelian language with its richness," says Karchava.

According to Poniava, discussions about the importance of Megrelian and Svan have started in recent years. It should be noted that there is not as much aggression in the Svan language as in Megrelian: for example, when my "Megrelian Language Self-Teacher" was published in 2021, there were many positive but also many negative reactions. According to Foniava, this may be due to the fact that in recent years others, including him and the founder of the publishing house "Artanuji" Buba Kudava, have talked a lot about the existing problems of Georgian languages and the need to protect them, and so the public has become a little used to the subject, but there is still more aggression towards Megrelian. This is manifested in the fact that people think that the introduction of the Megrelian language in schools will threaten the integrity of Georgia and lead to its disintegration, and to prevent this, the language should not be taught in schools, that is, it should be eliminated. Because in case of inaction, without a well-planned strategy and development and implementation by the state, another result is unthinkable".

Svanetian Language – Lushnu Nin

The Svan language, like Megrelian-Laz and Tsovatushuri, faces challenges. There are fewer Svan speakers than Megrelian, although the Svan language has survived, although it has no official status and is not taught in schools. The number of Svan speakers is estimated at between 30,000 and 80,000. UNESCO lists Svan as an "endangered language".

"The Svan language is a necessity to stay and be who you are. Georgia needs it because our culture and the Georgian language are largely based on the Svan language, and if you don't speak Svan anymore, we will also lose this very big and rich language. The country that has such rich three languages, how can we not be proud, not take them abroad and not develop what we have based on incomprehensible and senseless fears for me," said Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili during her visit to Svaneti in September 2022.

Medea Saghliani, a senior researcher at the Arnold Chikobava Institute of Linguistics, says the same about the Svan language. According to him, despite the interest of many Georgian and foreign linguists in the Svan language and culture, the language is unfortunately on the verge of extinction. This is facilitated by the fast pace of modern life and the rapidity and scale of internal and external migration. "Of course, parallel to these processes, the existence of the language is threatened by the gradual loss of relevance of the Svan language even in Svan families," says Saghliani.

The Svan language is one of the Georgian languages spoken today by the people who live in the Enguri Gorge in Upper Svaneti, the Tskhenistkali Gorge in Lower Svaneti, the Kodori Gorge in mountainous Abkhazia and in other parts of Georgia at different times, mainly by those who settled in Lagodekhi, the village of Pona, Gardabani and surrounding villages after the natural disaster in Svaneti in 1987.

The Svaneti language has the following dialects and sub-dialects:

Upper Svanetian (Zemosvanuri): Balszemouri: Ushguli, Kala, Ifari, Mulakh, Mestia, Langer, Latali.

Balskvemouri: Becho, Tskhumari, Etseri, Fari, Chuberi, Lakham, Lata, Azhara.

Lower Svanetian (Kvemosvanuri):

Lashkhur: Zakhunder, Chikharesh, Tsana.

Lentekhur: Kheledi, Lentekhi, Khofuri, Rtkhmeluri.

Choluric: Choluric.

The Svan language, like Megrul, is linguistically a language, used in family and informal social relations, and has no written standard or official status. "The fear of losing the Svan language has emerged in Georgian society in recent years, which is evidenced by the fact that many young people want to learn the Svan and Megrelian languages. However, there is a danger that these languages will fall into disuse," says mountaineer and alpinist Nika Paliani, a resident of Mestia. As Nika tells us, everyone around him in Mestia speaks Svan. Only if someone does not understand Svan, as a sign of respect, do they switch to Georgian or a language that everyone can understand. He thinks it would be great to introduce Svan into schools, although he thinks it is currently unrealistic due to the lack of professional language experts and the lack of Svan literature and translations. Paliani welcomes the teaching of Svan in Svaneti schools and sees this as a possible option for the future. He believes that there is no aggression against the Svan language in Georgian society. On the contrary, he says that when he speaks Svan, people ask him what language he speaks and are surprised that it is Svan.

Saghliani tells us that there has never been an attempt to teach the Svan language in schools in Svaneti, although recently there has been a discussion that the Svan language and Megrelian, as an integral part of our culture, should be taught in schools as an optional subject. However, this will take time and it will be necessary to explain to the public why it is important to learn and preserve these languages.

As Mariam Khardziani, an ecomigrant from Svaneti and a resident of one of Gardabani's villages, pointed out, if a nation takes care of its historical heritage and preserves its identity, it will reflect on the state's success in the political, economic and cultural spheres. Khardziani's family has been resettled in Gardabani for a long time, and their main language is still Svan. "Perhaps it happened because Svan is one of the integral parts of our identity, which in Gardabani made us feel that we are Svan and that we should not forget our language, customs and culture. All Svans in my village try to speak Svan with each other". Mariami tells us that when she first came to Svaneti, 15 years ago, she realised that the fact that her parents had taught her Svan was very important and appreciated. "Everyone around me spoke Svan, although I think that the state needs to take a more careful and attentive approach to developing the language, creating literature, translations, etc. The language is also a living organism, and if it is not to deteriorate and eventually disappear, it must be helped.

87-year-old history and geography teacher Davit Pakeliani, a former resident of the village of Ladreri in Zemo Svaneti, tells us that in his childhood, everyone spoke both Svan and Georgian. Although a lot of time has passed since then, even today everyone knows both Georgian and Svan. According to him, since Svaneti was difficult to reach due to its geographical location, the main internal communication language was always Svan and Georgian outside of Svaneti. "Svanetian culture is a rather independent culture. In the conditions of globalization, rapid technological development and living in a digital world, there are naturally fears that the language may disappear, but I still think that neither Svan nor Megrelian will disappear, because of the people who speak these languages ​​themselves. The main thing is that they don't follow cunning and non-cultural tendencies and don't think that knowledge of these languages ​​is no longer necessary. Then the language will disappear," says Pakeliani.

A great role is given to state or literary language and the importance of studying it, although this does not mean that the study of living language is of less value. "The free development of non-written languages and dialects can make the greatest contribution to the solution of philosophical and theoretical problems of universals and languages. Of course, like Megrelian-Laz and Tsovatushuri, it is very important to preserve the Svan language, because the role of the data of the Svan language, distinguished by archaisms, is great for the historical-comparative research of Georgian languages and the reconstruction of archetypes" - Saghliani tells us.

Talking about the survival of our languages is important and necessary because a large part of the public has no idea and has never heard about the threats to these languages. Among them are the people who speak these languages. They may cry and realise that these languages are disappearing, but they do not care and do not understand why it is necessary to save these languages and spend resources. "Unfortunately, some people even find it funny. I would say to such people that all languages, like any living organism, have the right to live. Language is one of the most important factors of identity. It preserves the history and culture of the people who speak it. At the same time, each language is a way of perceiving the world in its own way, and languages create diversity. Last but not least, every language is someone's mother tongue, and that needs to be preserved," says Poniava.

It is therefore necessary to raise awareness of languages, to study them and to devote more resources to them. Understanding the importance of these languages will bring us closer to knowing ourselves and our culture, and if we see the reality behind pseudo-patriotic sentiments, then both ourselves and the cultural reality around us will prove to be more polyphonic, diverse and interesting.

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