About 2 min read
A street sign can make you feel like a beginner before anyone has said a word. In Tbilisi, Georgian writing invites you to slow down and notice the letters themselves. But the forms you see on an everyday sign are only one part of the story.
Three traditions, not three languages
Georgian has three historic writing systems: Asomtavruli (also called Mrgvlovani), Nuskhuri and Mkhedruli. UNESCO describes their coexistence as a living culture. Mkhedruli is central to everyday education, while the older forms remain especially important in the Georgian Orthodox Church’s practices.
The National Archives of Georgia has exhibited manuscripts and historical documents in all three systems. This offers a useful way to approach them: as writing traditions with their own settings, rather than three unrelated languages.
A first word to recognise
Start with ა, მ and ი: a, m and i. Now look at მამა, mama. In Georgian it means “father”. A familiar-looking sequence can carry an unfamiliar meaning—an excellent reason to resist guessing from sound alone.
You can turn a walk into a small reading exercise. Choose one letter, look for it on several signs, and compare its neighbours. The aim is not to read everything at once. It is to make the unfamiliar less anonymous.
A script is not a family tree
Georgian belongs to the Kartvelian family, alongside Laz, Mingrelian and Svan. Language relationship and writing system are different questions. A shared script would not make two languages identical; different scripts would not prevent languages from being related.
Next time you encounter a new alphabet, ask two questions: what language is being written, and what tradition shapes its letters? The answers can lead in different directions—and that is where the discovery begins.
Sources and further reading
- UNESCO — Living culture of three Georgian writing systems
- National Archives of Georgia — Three Writing Systems
- Glottolog — Kartvelian
Photograph: Macsimus Halbertus / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Languages in this article: Georgian · Laz · Mingrelian · Svan
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