Georgian Alphabet

How They Write in Georgia – or Why People Look at Me Strangely When I Read a Street Sign

When I first arrived in Georgia, I thought I was lost. Not at the airport, not at the bus station – but among the letters. On street signs, menus, even in stores, I was greeted by a writing system that seemed as if no one else in the world used it. And indeed: the Georgian alphabet is one of the most unique things I have ever seen.

Not One, but Three Georgian Alphabets

Imagine that you have a language, but you can write it in three different ways. This is not a linguistic luxury, but the reality of Georgia. The three variations of Georgian script are: asomtavruli, nuskhuri, and mkhedruli – and among these, the last one is the most commonly used today.

Mkhedruli is like the playful, rounded cousin of Cyrillic and Armenian scripts. There are no uppercase letters, everything is rounded and ornate – yet completely functional. And of course: unreadable for us, at least at first glance.

The Writing that is Part of the Culture

The Georgian alphabet is not only used as a set of letters, but also as a symbol of cultural identity. Historians say that they had their own script already in the 5th century – while most of Europe had not yet adopted Latin letters. Of the three scripts, the first two are now primarily used for religious texts, mainly in the Orthodox Church.

I particularly like that Georgian children in school learn that these writing forms are part of their identity. While sitting in a restaurant I saw a ten-year-old boy effortlessly writing a word in mkhedruli letters, while the waiter was trying to figure out where this “strangely staring tourist” came from.

Learn it? Not Impossible!

If you ever decide to try to learn the Georgian letters, don’t be scared. At first, it might seem as if just curved lines and swirls are dancing on the paper – but like every language, it’s all a matter of practice. And if you can read the words khachapuri or mtsvadi in Georgian, you’re already winning – at least from a gastronomic viewpoint.

Have you ever tried to learn an entirely new alphabet? How did it go? Write in the comments!

Source: Wikipedia – Georgian scripts