Georgian Grammar
Part II
Pronouns
Personal pronouns take endings like nouns. The basic forms are as follows:
| I | me | we | chwen | |
| you | shen | you | tkwen | |
| he/she/it | is,igi | they | isini |
Possessive Pronouns:
| my | chemi | our | chweni | |
| your | sheni | your | tkweni | |
| his/her/its | misi | their | mati |
Demonstratives:
| this | es | these | eseni | |
| that | is,igi | those | isini |
Verbs
The structure of georgian
verbs is very different from English. In theory, it is
logical,--in practice, especially since it is riddled with
irregularities, it can be rather difficult to follow what's going
on and, more pertinently, who's doing what to whom.
The forms which follow are only guidelines. You can not conjugate
all verbs this way, usually more than not, most verbs are
irregular anyway. This is where the complexity in Georgian lies.
It is best to get a book and learn the most common verbs, which
happen to be irregular in most languages anyway.
Every Georgian verb has a 'root'-a basic word that carries a
basic meaning. To this are added, at both ends, smaller words or
letters that add further information to tell you exactly who's
doing what to whom or what and how and when. Ex:
| ts'er | write |
| ts'eren | they write |
| dats'eren | they will write |
| dagits'eren | they will write to you. |
As you can see, rather
alot of info can be packed into any one verb-but all the 'slots'
are never used at one time.
We saw the peronal pronouns before, but like Italian or Spanish,
they are only used for emphasis. The verb already gives you this
information.
The following is the basic verb structure:
| I | v- | we | v--t | |
| you | - | you | -t | |
| he/she/it | -s/a/o | they | -(i)an,-(n)en |
| vts'er | I write | vts'ert | we write | |
| ts'er | you write | ts'ert | you write | |
| ts'ers | he/she/it writes | ts'eren | they write |
An intriguing aspect of Georgian is that indirect object pronouns like 'to her' and 'for him' are marked in the verb as well. momts'era 'he wrote to me' mogts'era 'he wrote to you'.
By changing endings,
there are 7 basic tenses, as well as a variety of compound
tenses. More meanings are created by adding the preverbs as well
as other prefixes and suffixes.
Be prepared to see variants in all of the above. Some verbs will
change their whole form:khedavs 'she sees' nakhavs
'she will see'.
The negative is formed by putting ar immediately
before the verb. Nu 'do not' is used with
commands.
One verb you will
encounter frequently in Georgian is 'to love' qwar. 'I
love Tbilisi' is Tbilisi miqwars -Tbilisi is
loving to me.
'I want' follows a similar pattern. The most important are minda
'I want' and ginda 'you want'.
Georgian uses a plethora of 'preverbs' to give added meaning to any given verb. These are sometimes used in place of postpositions
| a- | up | mo- | to here | |
| ga- | away, out | she- | in | |
| gada- | across | cha- | down | |
| mi- | to there | ts'a- | away | |
| da- | no meaning |
modis 'he
comes' chamodis 'he comes down' shemodis
'he comes in'
midis 'he goes' chadis 'he goes
down' shedis 'he goes in
gaigebs 'to understand' moigebs 'to
win' ts'aagebs 'to lose'
The verb 'to be' is expressed in a variety of forms, but the easiest to use is:
| var | I am | vart | we are | |
| khar | you are | khart | you are | |
| aris | he/she/it is | arian | they are |
'He/she/it is' also takes a short form a after vowels and -aa after consonants:'Nia is a Georgian" can be either Nia Kartveli aris or Nia Kartveli a. 'The radio is here'= radio ak aris or radio ak aa.
Essential verbs
The verb 'to have' is
expressed using 2 different words.
Mqavs='to have a person or animal'
dzma mqavs 'I have a brother'
da gqavs 'You have a sister'
Makvs='to
have something'
puli gakvs 'do you have any money?'
puli makvs 'I have money'
Two more irregular but essential verbs are:
'To Come'
| movdivar | I come | movdivart | we come | |
| modikhar | you come | modikhart | you come | |
| modis | he/she/it comes | modian | they come |
'To Go'
| mivdivar | I go | mivdivart | we go | |
| midikhar | you go | midikhart | you go | |
| midis | he/she/it goes | midian | they go |
I hope this helps you. I originally researched this due to an ongoing argument concerning Georgian grammar in the sci.lang newsgroup. I endeavoured to learn as much as I could to better understand. I tried to keep this as non-technical as possible.