"evropuli qartia saqarTvelo "European Charter for Regional or ...

national language (ethnic language, native tongue) of a Georgian person
(Kakhetian, Svan, Megrelian, Acharan, Meskh, Imeretian, etc.) is the
Georgian language; Cf.: For an ethnic Armenian who has Georgian citizenship,
the Georgian language is a state language, while Armenian is a
national/ethnic, i.e., a native language.
II. a certain part of modern research and normative documents,
for instance, according to the "European Charter for Regional or Minority
Languages", the term "national language" is used as a synonym
for an official language and a state language (for instance, see the 69 th
explanation); while the terms such as the own language, native language
(own language, the 3 rd explanation; native language, 66 th
explanation) is
the one learnt from parents (= ethnic language) in one’s childhood.
Having in mind the above-mentioned explanation of the terms,
the state language (i.e. national language) and the ethnic language (native
language) is the Georgian language for ethnic Georgian who has
Georgian citizenship. Cf.: for ethnic Armenian who has Georgian citizenship
the national (/state) language is the Georgian language, while
the ethnic language (i.e., native language) is the Armenian language.
In Georgian scientific community the first explanation is more
popular, for instance, cf. B. Jorbenadze’s position (1989, p. 170): a language
is the most fundamental manifestation of national self-consciousness; it
is logical to consider a language as the most basic characteristic of a nation,
because the unity, consolidation of any nation is indeed determined by availability
of the shared language.
Cf.: according to the same author (1989, p.16): "a dialect is a variety
of a common national language rather than an independent system. It
must be emphasized: a variety of a national language rather than that of a literary
language, as a literary language is itself a variety of a national language.
In other words, the unity of the varieties represents a national language. Therefore,
a dialect should be studied against the background of this common national
language".
According to both explanations, a native language and an ethnos
are interdefinitive concepts: the native language of uncivilized ethnos
270
(tribe) is an unwritten language ; a civilized ethnos (with the centu-
270
Cf.: UNESCO qualification: http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-
URL_ID=28301&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html:
228