Page created by David Rapava, creator of the “Association for Survival of Mingrelian language”. 2011.

Data on the Mingrelian language

Alternative names/spellings: Megrelian

Classification:

South Caucasian (Kartvelian Languages)

Main dialects:  There is two main dialects: Zugdidi-Samurzakano  and Senaki

Area:

Mingrelian is spoken in Western Georgia (regions of Samegrelo and Abkhazia )

Number of speakers:

About 450000 according to David Rapava

Language status:

No official status, Mingrelian on present is only a language of communication.

Vitality & transmission:

According to UNESCO Mingrelian language is “definitely endangered”.

Situation differs  from one district to another from  “vulnerable” to “severely endangered”. The position of Mingrelian among younger generations is precarious.
The use and transmission of the language is declining rapidly.

Historical observations

Mingrelian is closely related to Laz, from which it has differentiated mostly in the last 500 years, after the northern (Mingrelian) and southern (Laz) communities were separated by Turkic invasions. It is somewhat less closely related to Georgian (the two branches having separated in the first millennium BC or earlier) and even more distantly related to Svan (which is believed to have branched off in the 2nd millennium BC or earlier). Mingrelian is not mutually intelligible with any of those other languages, although it is said that its speakers can recognize many Laz words.

From 1930 to 1938 several newspapers were published in Mingrelian, such as Kazaxishi 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 Gaxaria, Edem Izoria, Lasha Gvasalia, Guri Otobaia, Giorgi Sichinava, Jumber Kukava, and Vaxtang Xarchilava.

Links

Mingrelian poetry

Mingrelian-Georgian online dictionary

TITUS Caucasica: Megrelisch (German) :

Bibliography

Aleksandre Tsagareli (1880), Megrelskie Etiudi, Analiz Fonetiki Megrelskogo Yazika (“Megrelian Studies — The Analysis of Phonetics of Megrelian Language”). (Russian)

Ioseb Kipshidze (1914), Grammatika Mingrel’skogo (Iverskogo) Jazyka (“Grammar of Megrelian (Iverian) Language”). (Russian)

Shalva Beridze (1920), Megruli (Iveriuli) Ena (“Megrelian (Iverian) Language”). (Georgian)

Laurence Broers (2004), Containing the Nation, Building the State – Coping with Nationalism, Minorities, and Conflict in Post-Soviet Georgia

.მეგრული პოეზია (Mingrelian poetry) Publishing House ,,Bakmi’’ Tbilisi, Georgia 2007

Giorgi Sichinava,ნანაში ნინა (Nanashi nina) Mingrelian  Abc-book  Tbilisi,Georgia 2002

Alio Qobalia, მეგრული ლექსიკონი (Mingrelian dictionary),Tbilisi 2010 Publishing house ,,Artanuji,,

Otar kajaia მეგრულ-ქართული ლექსიკონი (Mingrelian-Georgian Dictionary) 4 Volumes   Publishing House ,,Nekeri,’’ Tbilisi ,Georgia

Otar kadshaia Heints Fahnrich , Mingrelisch-Deutsches Wörterbuch  Reichert,Wiesbaden, Germany 2001