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Ab dem Samstag, den 25.April 2013 startet ein neuer Georgischkurs für Anfänger bei der Sprach- und Kulturbörse der Technischen Universität Berlin. Die Einschreibung hat bereits begonnen und ist noch bis zum 19. April möglich. Weitere Infos unter skb.tu-berlin.de oder direkt bei der Dozentin Tinatin Panchvidze: tinatin777@yahoo.de
Es wird wieder ein Anfängerkurs für Georgisch bei der SKB der TU Berlin angeboten.
The Svan language is located in the high mountain region of North West Georgia along the gorges of the rivers Enguri, Cxenis-c̣q̇ali and Ḳodori. Today, linguists assume that it consists of five dialects: The so-called "Upper Svan" dialects Upper and Lower Bal, distributed in the Enguri valley above and below the Bal mountain, and the "Lower Svan" dialects Lashkh, Lentekhian and Cholurian spoken along the Cxenis-c̣q̇ali river (cf. Schmidt 1991, 475 where Cholurian is not yet recognised as a separate dialect, however). The main differences between the dialects and sub-dialects are observable in their sound systems, but there are also considerable divergences in morphology and syntax.
According to the most recent statistics (1997), the number of speakers of Svan does not exceed 30,000 people today, with ca. 15,000 speakers of Upper Svan and less than 12,000 speakers of Lower Svan dialects (there are no reliable numbers available for speakers of the Ḳodori region which belongs to Abkhazia; the esteemed number is about 2,500). Contrasting this with the data given by Džaošvili (1968) according to whom the number of inhabitants of Upper and Lower Svanetia was more than 32,000 in the 1960ies, we can easily see that there has been a steadily decrease of speakers of Svan in recent times. All speakers of Svan are bilingual speaking Georgian alongside Svan, with the latter being used as a familiar means of communication only while Georgian is the language of administration and school teaching everywhere in the Svan speaking areas. It is clear from historical sources that the impact of Georgian has lasted for centuries, with Christianization serving as a primary stimulus.
While the Svan population resisted the unpleasant conditions of the high mountain environment they lived in for centuries, the increasing economic difficulties of the last two decades have brought about a strong tendency towards migration which will result in a radical dissolution of the Svan linguistic communities. Only in a few cases, complete villages were transferred to different regions of Georgia, among them three Svan villages which were founded 50 km south of Tbilisi about fifteen years ago. In most cases, however, families or single persons preferred to leave Svanetia and to settle in other parts of Georgia when their houses were destroyed by avalanches or other natural catastrophes.
Although there were some attempts to create a basis for writing Svan as early as the middle of the 19th century (Anban 1864), Svan has never developed a written standard. It is true that from the beginning of Caucasian studies in Czarist times, a large amount of textual material has been published for both the Upper Svan dialects and the Lower Svan dialects of Lashkh and Lentekh, and several grammatical descriptions and dictionaries have been prepared, mostly for the Upper Bal dialect. Nevertheless, there are considerable gaps in the description of Svan, esp. for the Cholurian variety which was regarded as a subdialect of Lentekhian in former times, and there is practically no material available at all of the Svan language as spoken in the Ḳodori valley which was resettled by speakers of the Upper Svan dialects. It must be added that the published texts do not cover the spoken language in its entirety, most of them representing folk songs, fairy tales or other folkloristic narratives, mostly without translations into Georgian or other languages, and dialogue material is completely missing. This is also true for the phonographic recordings that have been made so far. The first specimen of spoken Svan which is available to scholarly investigation is the recording of a speaker of Upper Bal made by A. Dirr in 1909, preserved in the Phonogrammarchiv of the Austrian Academy (Vienna), which was edited by Gippert (1986). The only web publication of Svan is the tape recording of a Lashkh text which was prepared by Gippert in 1984. There is no audiovisual material available yet. Taking these preliminaries into account, the most urgent task of the present project consists in a documentation of the Cholurian dialect and the varieties of Svan as spoken in the Ḳodori valley for which there is practically no material available so far. Furthermore, it is necessary to document the variation of all Svan dialects contrastively by providing recordings of material spoken or told in similar conditions and covering similar subjects, esp. of everyday life. more: titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de
Georgian and Russian Language Courseswith experienced native TutorPrivate-One-to-OneCompletely flexible timeswith SKYPE or in Tbilisiall levels: from Beginner to Advancedtext books and all the material you need for FREEWould you like to learn or improve your Georgian or Russian?www.georgiancourses.com
Kursnummer A47022H Termin: Fr. 11.09.2009
Dauer: 1 Veranstaltung(en), 1 Unterrichtseinheit(en)
Kursleitung: Luisa Dunukadse-Bierstedt
Kursort: Volkshochschule, Löhrstraße 3 - 7
Kursentgelt: 0,00 €
Please pass along so the course will not be cancelled!I'm passing along an appeal from Manana Kock-Kobaidze manana.kock.kobaidze@mah.se, who teaches Georgian langugage distancelearning courses at Malmö University in Sweden. Georgian I, which is usually taught every semester, is threatened with closure in fall 2009: the University has raised the minimum enrollment from 25 to 35. If Georgian I is cancelled this fall, there is a risk that it will be cancelled for further semesters too.I have taken Georgian I and can recommend this course highly to anyone looking for a solid and manageable introduction to Georgian, and to thosewho are working through more comprehensive textbooks (e.g., Aronson's or Hewitt's) that are challenging to self-study. The course is well thought out in its material (logically ordered themes, limited grammar information) andthe means of teaching it (a combination of on-line self-check andteacher-corrected exercises). It is taught entirely on-line, and Dr. Kock-Kobaidze is very accessible and responsive, through e-mail and optionalSkype sessions. The course is also *FREE* (once enrolled, one mustwife-transfer a small fee, SEK200 or about US$26, to join the Malmö Student Union), and a nice way to meet other learners from around the world.The deadline for so-called late application is 28 August.The official site of the course is http://www.edu.mah.se/IM202E There is a link to the application at this site.Information about the course and a link to theapplication are also found here:http://webzone.imer.mah.se/projects/georgianV04/INTRO/index_Georgian.htmlhttp://webzone.imer.mah.se/projects/georgianV04/INTRO/apply.htmlPlease email Dr. Kock-Kobaidze with any questions: manana.kock.kobaidze@mah.se Please pass this information on to any interested colleagues or students. Thanks for your consideration!
