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5 unusual facts about Kartvelian languages


Kartvelian languages

No relationship with other languages, including the two North Caucasian language families, has been demonstrated so far.

If the Dené–Caucasian hypothesis, which attempts to link Basque, Burushaski, the North Caucasian families and other phyla, is correct, then the similarities to Basque may also be due to these influences, however indirect.

Mingrelian (მარგალური ნინა, margaluri nina), with some 500,000 native speakers as of 1989, mainly in the western regions of Georgia of Samegrelo and Abkhazia (at present in Gali district only).

Kartvelian peoples

The Kartvelian peoples are the ethno-linguistic groups of speakers of Kartvelian languages.

Svan language

Svan is the most differentiated member of the four Kartvelian languages, and is not intelligible with the other three (Georgian, Mingrelian and Laz).


Demographics of Europe

The Turkic and Mongolic families also have several European members, while the North Caucasian and Kartvelian families are important in the southeastern extremity of geographical Europe.

Demographics of Iran

There are small groups using other Indo-European languages such as Pashtun and Armenian; the isolate Dravidian language Brahui in the south-east; and Georgian (a member of the Kartvelian language family), spoken only by those Iranian Georgians that live in Fereydan and Fereydunshahr.


see also