Dr. Tamar Makharoblidze a short Grammar of Georgian Introduction Georgian

dedachemi/mamachemi/bebiachemi/p’ap’achemi

dedasheni/mamasheni/bebiasheni/p’ap’asheni

dedamisi/mamamisi/bebimisi/p’ap’amisi

dedachveni/mamachveni/bebiachveni/p’ap’achveni

dedatkveni/mamatkveni/bebiatkveni/p’ap’atkveni

bidzachemi/bidzasheni/bidzamisi/bidzachveni/bidzatkveni

mamida (father’s sister) mamidachemi/mamidasheni/mamidamisi/mamidachveni/mamidatkveni

deida (mother’s sister)

deidachemi/ deidasheni/ deidamisi/ deidachveni/ deidatkveni
 

 Very closely related words can produce compound nouns:

Sister and brother da-dzma

The beard and moustaches   ts’ver-ulvashi

Eyes and eyebrows /eyes    tval-ts’arbi

Knife and fork             dana-changali

Forest and valley             t’q’e-veli

Mountain and valley       mta-bari

Bad and good             av-k’argi

Necked                    shishvel-t’it’veli

Hungry and thirsty         mshier-mts’q’urvali

Suit and trousers           sharval-k’ostiumi

Doors and windows         k’ar-panjara

House and yard            saxl-k’ari

Death and life                  sik’vdil-sitsotskhle

Food (bread and salt) pur-marili

The negative form of the verbs can be produced by adding “ar“ or “ara” before the verbs.   Negative imperatives often use “nu.” Don’t be so bad! - nu iknebi aseti tsudi! Don’t be afraid! - nu geshinia! But “ar” is also used – Don’t be! – ar iq’o! The negative forms with “ar” usually are more categorical.

The subject is always in the nominative case.

 

B. Two personal (subject and indirect object) intransitive – I know somebody  -  vitsnob (me -I mas-him/her)

The subject is always in the nominative case and the indirect object is always in dative.

 

C. Two personal (subject and direct object) transitive – I paint  -vkhat’av (me-I mas -him/her);  In past - I painted – davkhat’e (me-I is –him/her)

 

D. Three personal (subject, indirect object and direct object) transitive – I paint it for him/her – vukhat’av (me-I mas-him/her mas –it); I’ m telling him it – vuambob (me-I mas-him/her mas –it).

Present tense (I series)  

kali surats khat’avs - The woman paints a picture.

Subject – nominative

Object direct – dative
Past /Aorist (II series)  kalma surati dakhat’a - The woman painted a picture.

Subject – ergative

Object direct – nominative
Past unreal /perfect ( III series)     kals surati daukhat’avs – It seems, the woman painted a picture,

Subject – dative

Object direct – nominative

3-personal transitive  (group D.)

Subject – nominative

Object direct – dative

Object indirect – dative

Past /Aorist (II series)   kalma dedas surati daukhat’a - The woman painted a picture for (her) mother.

Object direct – nominative

Object indirect – dative
Past unreal /perfect ( III series)    kals dedistvis surati daukhat’avs – It seems, the woman painted a picture for (her) mother.

Subject – dative

Object direct – nominative

The object indirect – with postposition “for” - tvis is out of verbal morphology. This is a 2-personal verb now.

2. 
   In transitive verbs the direct object is in the dative case in present and in future tenses (in the I series ), but it’s in nominative in the II serya:
   

k’atsma mgeli dakhat’a. (II series)

k’ats mgeli daukhat’avs. (III series)

The cases of subject and direct object in transitive verbs
1 series k’atsi (S) nom. khatavs surats (Od.) dat.

II series k’atsma (S) erg. dakhata surati (Od.) nom.

III series k’atss (S) dat. daukhatavs surati (Od.) nom.
The indirect object is always in dative and the subject of intransitive verbs is always in nominative.

16. 3. Markers of verbal persons

1. 
   The markers of subject:
   

2. 
   The direct object has no markers in the third person singular and plural. Only the indirect object is marked in the third person.
   

The poly-personal Basque verb, for instance, in difference from Georgian, always exposes all markers of all its verbal persons. There are some morphologically non-referenced or weakly marked, or partially marked verbal persons/actants (arguments) in Georgian, while Basque doesn’t have such facts being as very accurate in exposing each verbal person. It has the strict succession in exposing its grammatical categories such as personality, ergativity, plurality, etc. Sometimes the Basque language has double referencing for some grammar categories.

In Georgian verbs, some personal referents meet each-other in the prefix position and this fact became the reason for many different opinions about this matter.

According to some contemporary Georgian linguists verbal personality is a morphological category and only referenced persons can be taken into account. We disagree with this opinion as we think that it’s very important for the Georgian verbal morphology to include in the verbal personality zero-marking persons and even non-referenced persons such as the third direct object in the modern Georgian language. The conjugation system in Georgian is based on such understanding of personality. Besides, this new theory of verbal personality is full of logical problems.

We consider valency as a semantic category. We can expose the appropriate linguistic universal regulation – there are different valency verbs in each language and the realization of these differences is the task of the proper grammars.
16. 5. Conjugation system
   The Georgian verb has 3 series and 11 so called mts’krivi / screeve (rows) of conjugation. There are 11 rows of conjugation in Georgian.
I series

ats’mq’o - Present Indicative - Indefinite or present continuous, narrative (vkhat’av - I paint/I am painting) Sometimes these forms without a preverb may be poly-semantic with a meaning of future tense: vkhat’av - now and vkhat’av - tomorrow;

uts’q’vet’eli - Imperfect - Past continuous, narrative (vkhat’avdi - I was painting)

ats’mq’os k’avshirebiti - Present Subjunctive- Present subjunctive (vkhat’avde - If I paint/if I am painting)

mq’opadi - Future Indicative- Imperfect Future indefinite, narrative (davkhat’av -I’ll paint)

kholmeobiti – Conditional- Future in the past conditional (davkhat’avdi - I would paint)

mq’opadis k’avshirebiti - Future Subjunctive- Future subjunctive, conditional (davkha’tavde - If I'll paint)
II series

ts’q’vet’ili/aoristi - Aorist Indicative - General past, narrative (da)vkhat’e - I have painted / I painted. It could be present/past perfect with preverbs.

II k’avshirebiti - Optative - Future subjunctive (da)vkhat’o - If I’ll paint) It could be present/past perfect with preverbs.
III series

I turmeobiti – Perfect - Past narrative (The subject hardly believes in his act - turme – it seems) (da)mikhat’avs – It seems I painted /I have/had painted/ It could be present/past perfect with proverbs.

II turmeobiti - Pluperfect - and III k’avshirebiti - Perfect Subjunctive-

are very close rows - Future in the past subjunctive conditional. (da)mekhat’a – (da)mekhat’os - If I would paint)

The subjunctive mood is exposed by the following rows:

ats’mq’os k’avshirebiti, kholmeobiti, mq’opadis k’avshirebiti, II k’avshirebiti and III k’avshirebiti.

ts’q’vet’ili – dakhat’e!

II k’avshirebiti – For the I and the III persons – (ar) davkhat’ot! (ar) dakhat’on! For negative imperatives of the II person – ar (da)khat’ot!

mq’opadi is seldom used only for very categorical orders - (ar) davkhat’av!

1. 
   Present – ats’mq’o
   
2. 
   Past – ts’q’vet’ili (aoristi)
   
3. 
   Future – mq’opadi
   
4. 
   Future in the past - kholmeobiti
   

Continuous

1. 
   Present – ats’mq’o
   
2. 
   Past - uts’q’vet’eli
   
3. 
   Future - ats’mq’o Without preverbs.
   
4. 
   Future in the past - II turmeobiti / III k’avshirebiti
   

Perfect

1. 
   Present – ts’q’vet’ili (aoristi) or I turmeobiti
   
2. 
   Past - ts’q’vet’ili (aoristi or I turmeobiti
   
3. 
   Future- mq’opadi
   
4. 
   Future in the past - II turmeobiti / III k’avshirebiti
   

Perfect-continuous

1. 
   Present – uts’q’vet’eli
   
2. 
   Past - uts’q’vet’eli
   
3. 
   Future - mq’opadi
   
4. 
   Future in the past - II turmeobiti / III k’avshirebiti
   

av – vkhat’av (I paint), vklav (I kill), vmarkhav (I bury), vkhurav (I close), vkharshav (I boil), vkhuchav (I close eyes), vplangav (I spend money/time), vdzrav (I move), vzidav (I carry), vk’itkhav (I ask), vmalav (I hide), vbadzav (I imitate), vp’arav (I steal), vq’nosav (I smell), vq’lap’av (I swallow), vkhedav (I look), vnakhav (I see), vparav (I cover) etc.

eb - (very often used) vak’eteb (I make), vasheneb (I build), vats’itleb (I make red), vaq’vitleb (I make yellow), etc.

Compare: I series - I pant it. me(S) vkhat’av mas(Od.) and

III series - It seems, I’ve painted it. me(S) damikhat’avs is(Od.)

In the first example “v”- is the I person subject marker, but in the second example the marker for the I person subject is “m”-, which is usually the I person object marker and the III person object is exposed by the subject marker -“s.”

2. Subjective - with the prefix marker “i-“. I’m painting it for myself – v-i-khat’av. The verbal act is performed by the subject and for the subject.

3. Objective - with the prefix markers “i” - for the indirect object of the I-II persons and “u” - for the indirect object of the III person. Objective version conveys the meaning when the verbal act is performed for the interests of the indirect object. Compare: I’m painting it for you – g-i-khat’av and I’m painting it for him/her – v-u-khat’av.
The subjective version exposes the subject acting on its own body and the subject performing the verbal act for his/her own-self. Only two-personal transitive verbs have this form of version. Samples: viban t’ans/p’irs ( I wash myself my body/my face), vivartskhni tmas (I comb my hair), viretskhav t’ansatsmels (I wash my cloth).
All markers of version are prefixes. They appear after personal prefixes.

Compare the two schemes without and with objective version (khat’va - to paint):

B.

s/Oi.	I s.	I Is.	III s.	I pl.	II pl.	III pl.
I s.	------	gikhat’av	vukhat’av	-------	gikhat’avt	vukhat’av
II s.	mikhat’av	------	ukhat’av	gvikhat’av	-------	ukhat’av
III s.	mikhat’avs	gikhat’avs	ukhat’avs	gvikhat’avs	gikhat’avt	ukhat’avs
I pl.	-------	gikhat’avt	vukhat’avt	-------	gikhat’avt	vukhat’avt
II pl.	mikhat’avt	-------	ukhat’avt	gvikhat’avt	-------	ukhat’avt
III pl.	mikhat’aven	gikhat’aven	ukhat’aven	gvikhat’aven	gikhat’aven	ukhat’aven

All rows can expose the category of version. Compare:

vkhat’avdi – vikhat’avdi- vukhat’avdi,

vkhat’avde – vikhat’avde- vukhat’avde,

dackhat’o - davikhat’o - davukhat’o, etc.
But the forms of the III series never have version, although they are produced by the version markers. These markers are out of category in the III series. All forms of version have the same forms in the III series. They don’t show any differences. Compare:

Neutral vkhat’av – damikhat’avs

Subjective vikhat’av – damikhat’avs

Objective vukhat’av – damikhat’avs

1. 
   The difference between transitive and intransitive verbs by the category of version is systemic. The three dimensional model of Georgian version is available only in transitive verbs. Intransitive verbs may have only the two dimensional model, because there is no subjective version in intransitive verbs. This is the systemic difference of principle character showing the importance and initiality of the two-dimensional model of version in the Georgian language.
   
2. 
   The verbs that lack some forms of version. There are the two groups of such verbs:
   

1. 
   The lack of the forms inside the one row of conjugation with the missing opposition forms of version, for example: we have vatsnob-vitsnob, but there is no objective version form - vutsnob.
   
2. 
   The lack of the forms in the verbs that are missing the forms in the conjugation paradigm, for example we have the opposition of the static verbs ’ts’eria - uts’eria and they both have ets’era in the second series. The three personal verbs also lose the meaning of version in the forms of the third series. When version creates the new forms of conjugation rows, having the function of flexion affixes in the verbal forms, than these affixes loose their destination meaning.
   

3. 
   Sometimes there are two indirect objects in the verbs. Of course this doesn’t mean that both of them are exposed in the verb.
   

B. Two indirect objects in transitive verbs create the four personal forms: mimits’era (He/she wrote it me him/her) mimikhat’a (He/she painted it me him/her). In such cases mostly causatives are used: gamik’etebine (you make him/her do it me), damikhat’vine (you make him paint it me). All types of such forms are objective version forms without any exceptions.

The adding the indirect object has two ways and reasons:

I. The causation needs to have the executive object or

II. The possessive beneficiary semantic needs to be outlined.

The forms with two indirect objects mainly have the semantics of objective version.

4. 
   The poly-semantic forms of version.
   

5. 
   The verbs without the category of version. Such verbs have no opposition forms and therefore have no category of version: uq’vars (loves), itsis (He/she knows), akhsovs (He/she remembers), hgonia (He/she takes into), uch’iravs (He/she holds), sdzuls (He/she hates).
   

1. 
   The forms without the markers of version: sch’ams (He/she eats), cdz’uls (He/she hates), hkvia (He/she /it is named) and etc. These verbs have no markers nor understanding of version.
   
2. 
   The forms with the markers of version: itsis (He/she knows), uq’vars (He/she loves), akvs (He/she has) and etc. These verbs have the version markers without the destination semantic, as they have no opposite forms.