Table of Contents
Historical and Visual Overview
Georgian uses a unique alphabet that is not related to Latin, Cyrillic, or Greek in its modern form. When you start Georgian, you enter a completely different writing world.
There are three historical scripts used for Georgian:
| Script name | Georgian name | Main use today | Visual style |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asomtavruli | ანბანი ასომთავრული | Historical, religious art, inscriptions | Monumental, all caps, angular or round |
| Nuskhuri | ნუსხური | Church books (with Asomtavruli) | Small, compact, manuscript style |
| Mkhedruli | მხედრული | Everyday modern Georgian | Cursive, flowing, what you will learn |
Today, modern Georgian reading and writing uses Mkhedruli. The other two scripts appear in churches, icons, and decorative inscriptions, and in the liturgical system called Khutsuri (Asomtavruli + Nuskhuri).
For this course, you will focus on Mkhedruli, but it is useful to know that the others exist. When you see round, decorative Georgian letters in churches, you are often looking at Asomtavruli or Nuskhuri, not Mkhedruli.
Important: When people say "the Georgian alphabet" in everyday life, they almost always mean Mkhedruli.
Alphabet Type and General Characteristics
Georgian uses an alphabet, not a syllabary and not Chinese-style characters. Each symbol usually corresponds to one sound.
Some key features:
- Left to right writing direction, the same as English
- No capital or small letters in modern Mkhedruli
One letter has one basic shape, used everywhere - Letters do not join like Arabic or some handwriting styles of Latin
Each letter is written separately, even in cursive - Mostly phonetic
If you can read the letters, you can usually pronounce the word correctly, even if you do not know the meaning
Georgian vowels and consonants each have separate letters. There are 5 vowel letters and the rest are consonants.
Number of Letters and Alphabet Order
Modern Mkhedruli has 33 letters.
Historically there were more letters, but some old sounds disappeared and their letters are no longer used in modern standard Georgian spelling.
The alphabet has a fixed traditional order, similar to ABC in English. This order is used in:
- Dictionaries
- Indexes
- Teaching
- Alphabet songs
You will see the order when you learn the Mkhedruli alphabet in detail, in the next chapter.
Relationship Between Sound and Letter
Georgian spelling is relatively regular. For a beginner, this is very helpful.
In most cases:
- 1 letter = 1 sound
- There are no digraphs for native Georgian sounds
(In English "sh" = 2 letters, 1 sound, but Georgian does not work like this.)
In words borrowed from other languages, sometimes the pronunciation is not exactly what you expect, but for basic Georgian the pattern is clear and consistent.
Key rule: If you can read all 33 letters, you can read out loud almost any modern Georgian word.
You must remember that some Georgian consonants have no exact equivalent in English. At this stage, just understand that:
- Some letters represent strong consonants (called "ejective" sounds)
- Other letters may look similar in transliteration but are different letters in Georgian
You will meet these details when you study consonant sounds and clusters.
One Script, Many Fonts
Just like English has many fonts, Georgian Mkhedruli also appears in different styles:
| Context | Typical style |
|---|---|
| Printed books | Clear, rounded or slightly angular Mkhedruli fonts |
| Newspapers | Compact fonts, sometimes narrow letters |
| Street signs | Bold, simple letters, often all same height |
| Handwriting | More curved, personal variations |
| Digital screens | Standardized fonts, easy to read |
The basic structure of each letter stays the same, even if the font changes. Some fonts are very decorative, but for language learning you will mostly see clear standard fonts.
When you meet a new Georgian text, it can be useful to:
- Identify the script: Mkhedruli (for this course)
- Notice the font style: printed, handwritten, decorative
Punctuation and Basic Layout
Georgian uses punctuation that is largely similar to English punctuation, especially in modern writing.
- Full stop / period:
. - Comma:
, - Question mark:
? - Exclamation mark:
! - Quotation marks: often
"...", but Georgian texts also use local styles like „...“
Space usage:
- Words are separated by spaces, like in English
- There are no spaces inside a word to show grammatical endings or postpositions
Written examples (do not worry about reading them yet, this is only for layout):
- Sentence:
სწავლობ ქართულს.
"You study Georgian." - Question:
სწავლობ ქართულს?
"Do you study Georgian?"
The position of punctuation is the same as in English: it comes after the word or phrase.
Where You See Georgian Script
As you begin to recognize Mkhedruli shapes, you will notice Georgian writing in many places:
- Street signs and metro stations in Georgia
- Product labels and packaging
- Restaurant menus and café boards
- Websites in Georgian
- Books from Georgia, both literary and educational
- Social media posts and messages between Georgians
Outside Georgia, you may see Georgian writing:
- On wine bottles from Georgia
- In Georgian restaurants
- In churches of the Georgian Orthodox tradition
Whenever you see Georgian text, you can practice identifying that it is Mkhedruli and not Latin or Cyrillic. Even before you know the letters, training your eye to spot the script is useful.
Transliteration and Romanization
Because Georgian has its own alphabet, learners often meet transliteration or romanization, which is writing Georgian words using Latin letters.
For example:
| Script | Example |
|---|---|
| Georgian (Mkhedruli) | ქართული |
| Latin transliteration | kartuli |
Transliteration helps at the very beginning, but it has important limits:
- Some Georgian sounds do not exist in English
- One Latin letter may stand for several different Georgian letters in informal writing
- Different systems of transliteration exist
In this course, transliteration may appear as support, but the main goal is to read and write Georgian in Mkhedruli.
Do not rely only on Latin letters for Georgian. Start getting used to Mkhedruli as early as possible.
The Georgian Script and Other Languages
Georgian script is used not only for standard Georgian, but also for some related languages, especially in academic and local contexts, for example:
- Mingrelian
- Laz
- Svan
The same basic Mkhedruli letters are used, sometimes with small adjustments. For this course, you focus only on standard Georgian, but it is useful to know that the script has a wider regional role.
New Vocabulary for This Chapter
Below is a small list of useful English terms related to the Georgian script. At this stage, the Georgian equivalents are not required, but the English terms will help you follow explanations later in the course.
| Term | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Alphabet | A set of letters used to write a language, like A B C |
| Script | A writing system, such as Georgian, Latin, Cyrillic |
| Mkhedruli | The modern Georgian script used for everyday writing |
| Asomtavruli | An older Georgian script used mainly in religious and decorative contexts |
| Nuskhuri | Another historical Georgian script used with Asomtavruli in church texts |
| Letter | A single symbol in an alphabet |
| Vowel | A speech sound like "a, e, i, o, u" produced with an open mouth |
| Consonant | A speech sound produced with some obstruction in the mouth, like "p, t, k" |
| Font | A particular style of letters in print or on screen |
| Punctuation | Marks like the period, comma, and question mark used in writing |
| Transliteration | Writing a word from one script with the letters of another script |
| Romanization | Writing a word from another script using Latin letters |
| Capital letter | A larger letter used at the beginning of sentences or names in many languages, but not in Mkhedruli |
| Phonetic | Related to the sounds of speech, or spelling that closely follows pronunciation |
| Direction (of writing) | The way text is written, such as left to right or right to left |
In the next chapter you will meet the Mkhedruli alphabet itself, with each letter, its sound, and examples.