FR

Je vais commencer avec un petit blitz d’informations. La langue géorgienne a trois alphabets. De nos jours, le premier (et le plus vieux) est utilisé seulement dans les icônes religieuses, le deuxième est utilisé dans les écrits religieux, et le troisième est utilisé pour écrire la langue moderne. Ce dernier s’appelle mkhedruli, « militaire », et c’est de lui dont il est question dans cet article. Les géorgiens apprennent ces trois alphabets a l’école, en plus des alphabets latin et cyrillique. Plutôt impressionant.

J’ai passé 6 semaines en Géorgie. J’ai voulu en faire ma destination principale pour ce voyage, je lui ai donc donné un peu plus d’amour. Apprendre l’alphabet géorgien (un si bel alphabet) m’accorderait bien quelques point de sympathie de plus de la part des géorgiens, donc je l’ai mémorisé. Et les efforts ne furent pas en vain.

D’abord, bien que beaucoup d’information soit transcrite en alphabet latin, quelques points parfois vitaux n’étaient qu’en géorgien: noms de rue, menus, destinations des autobus…connaître l’alphabet, même sans parler la langue, fut souvent utile.

J’aurais bien des histoires à vous conter sur la façon dont les yeux des géorgiens s’illuminent quand ils découvrent qu’un étranger connaît leur alphabet. Plusieurs sont venus me parler lorsqu’ils ont remarqués, d’autres ont simplement pris plaisir à me faire lire, pages après pages, un paquet de texte. Ça ouvre des portes!

J’ai appris l’alphabet en me fabriquant des trucs de mémorisation, et je les partage avec vous ci-dessous. Avec ces trucs en tête, il ne me resta ensuite qu’à l’écrire encore et encore et encore!

EN

A little factual foreword. The Georgian language has three alphabets. Nowadays, the first (and oldest one) is only used in religious icons, the second one is used in religious writings, the third one is used in modern writing. That last one is called Mkhedruli (If you think that’s a hard word, try gvprtskvni), and that’s the one this article is about. Georgians learns these three alphabets in school as kids, along with the Latin in Cyrilic ones. They are quite awesome.

I spent 6 weeks in Georgia. It was meant to be the centrepiece of my trip, so I decided to give it extra love. I figured learning the Georgian alphabet (which is utterly beautiful) would get me a few more sympathy points from the Georgians, so I gave it my all and memorized it. And it was well worth the effort!

First of all, even though there’s a lot that is transliterated to the Latin alphabet, vital information was sometimes written only in Georgian. Street names, signs, menus, bus destinations…Not knowing the language surely didn’t make the alphabet useless.

But also, Georgian people’s eyes light up when they realize you can read their alphabet. I’ve had strangers coming to talk to me when they noticed I could read it, and others who kept on feeding me Georgian text just to hear me read stuff. It opens doors. Human doors.

I learned the alphabet using mnemonic tricks, and then a lot of repetitive writing. So here are my tricks! Many of them could only make sense to me, but if it can help you for at least one letter, I’ll be happy.

********

აეიოუ (aeiou): I just learned them by heart. They are cute. The ო (o) looks like an inverted Greek omega (ω).

ბდგ (bdg): bunch of letters with eyes, just like in Latin alphabet. They kinda look similar to their Latin equivalent too. A bit.

ზ (z): It’s one of the most fun to write. I say « zzzzzoup » while writing it.

ფ (p): The letter looks like a cursive « oz », which is a movie you can watch on TV. This letter is a combination of თ (t) and ვ (v)

მნ (mn): Are two twins sulking back to back

ჟ (ž): Is a fancy looking letter, just like the Cyrilic ж (also ž)

რ (r): Is a bird with a stick. I just know that the bird with a stick is R

ქ (k): Is like a ე (e) with a horn. So it’s a un-e-Korn 🙂

კ (k’ – ‘ is to represent a glottal stop.): is a special looking un-e-Korn. So it’s a special k.

ლ (l): is a Large bird

ღ (gh – like the French R) is jealous of the size of ლ And goes Rrrrrr.

ყ (q’): y is a letter pronounced in different ways in different languages, therefore, it’s a complicated letter. And pronouncing q’ is pretty complicated.

შწტჭ (š, ts’, t’, č’): These were tricky. I had to invent a full story about how შ and წ are two birds fishing for ტ, (that swirly thing is a fish) and შ catches it. Therefore, they fuse together to give ჭ. t’+š=č’, basically. And წ expresses his disappointment by going Tsss’. But I guess you could find something easier, hehe.

ჩ (č): Is an upside down Cyrillic ч (also č).

ს (s): Looks like a ssssnake.

ც(ts): Looks like an large heavy snake, therefore, Tsss.

ძ (dz): Dz is how we often pronounce d in Canadian-French.

ხ (kh – like in « Loch Ness »): Has a stick down its throat and goes khhh to get it out.

ჯ (dž): Looks so nice and unique. I just learned it. Also, it’s on the Borjomi water bottles.

ჰ (h): looks like an Arabic character, or smoke rising, which both feel very « H » to me.

პ (p’): is a smaller version of ჰ (h). And when I say the letter, I picture myself blowing smoke.