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

Arn. Chikobava:
Zan-Svan
234
Svan
Zan
Common Kartvelian language Standard language of the Georgians
According to modern scientific research it is obvious that the ancient
Georgian ecclesiastical (church) literary language (which has directly
developed into the modern literary Georgian) descends from
common Kartvelian language; while the Georgian dialectal groups such
as central, Svan, Zan, Meskh, Pkhovian, Rachan, Her, represent more
or less modified branches of archaic Georgian.
There is a diversity of views regarding the chronology of common
Kartvelian language: one group of scientists date the common
Kartvelian language to II-I millennia BCE (Arn. Chikobava, K.
Bergsland, H. Vogt, etc.), while another group considers functioning of
the common Kartvelian language in V-IV millennia BCE as a possibility
(T. Gamkrelidze, V. Ivanov, T. Mikeladze, etc.). In our view, the first
consideration seems more convincing; supposedly, at the time of formation
of the Colchian-Qoban culture 283 by the people of Kartvelian
descent, from mid-2 nd millennium BCE (until the first half of I
millennium BCE) on the basis of dialects of proto-Kartvelian tribes 284
the common Kartvelian language (Koine) – the common oral language
of ancient Georgian tribes was formed.
The analysis of the onomastic material transferred from Kartvelian
into the languages of the neighboring peoples, Kartvelian borrowings
and so-called dated toponyms (Kutaisi, Patisi, etc.) provides a basis
for arguing that the modern Kartvelian sub-systems (literary Georgian,
Megrelian-Laz, Svan, Pkhovian, Meskhian and other dialects) origi-
285
nated at the turn of our millennium .
283 The world’s first civilized societies date back to III millennium BCE, accordingly, dating
back the Kartvelian and Iberian-Caucasian entities to V-IV millennia is unrealistic.
284 Cf.: The following Kartvelian tribes appear in 2 nd half of I millennium, BCE: the
Mushki/Meskhs, Daiaenians/Taokhoi, the Colles, Tibareni, the Iberians, the Kuts/Kvits,
the Coraxi, Halizoni/Chalybes, the Chalds/Khalds, the Macrones, Phasians, the inhabitants
of Ekriktike, the Heniochi, the Sannoi, etc.
285 For discussion see T. Putkaradze, 2005.