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

and semantic structures of the given language entity and the literary
language data. We would like to note briefly that the linguistic pressure
of the country’s cultural-political center substantially defines the degree
of mutual influence between standard and dialectal codes: the language
of the wider society (rather than the cultural and political elite) located
far from the cultural-political center becomes rather estranged from literary
language. It is noteworthy that the difference between literary
Georgian and dialects increases in proportion as remoteness from the
capital city (the spiritual-cultural and administrative center) increases.
In accordance with the decreasing influence of the literary language, the
current domestic spoken entities of the Georgians could be grouped as
central and marginal dialects as well as those spread beyond the historical
territory of Georgia; the marginal dialectal group itself is represented
by six sub-groups such as:
Central dialects: Kakhetian, Kartlian, Imeretian, Lechkhumian, Gurian.
Marginal: Meskhian dialects: Acharan, Livanan, Machakhelian, Imerkhevian,
Taoan, Samtskhean, Javakhian;
Her dialects: Kakian, Aliabatian;
Pkhovian dialects: Chaghma-tush, Pshavian, Khevsurian, Mokhevian,
Mtiul-Gudamaqarian; in addition, Tsova-Tushian may be considered as an "associated"
dialect in with linguistic layers similar to both Chechnian-Ingushian
and Georgian are preserved;
Rachan dialects: Lower Rachan, Upper Rachan;
Svan dialects: Lashkh, Lentekhian, Cholurulian, Balskvemoan, Balszemoan;
Zan dialects: Megrelian, Laz (Khopan, Vitsean-Arkabean, Atinan).
Dialects of the Georgians beyond Georgia’s historical territory: Fereydanian,
the Kartvel language of "Cveneburebi" (the immigrated Georgian Mohajirs in
Bursa-Inegol, Adafazar-Izmit, Gonen and Kaizer) and Qizlar-Mozdokian-
Plastunka Georgian.
II. Two major groups are identified according to the historical
reflexes of alveolar sounds:
Group A:
alveolar dialects: Kartlian, Kakhetian, Imeretian, Lechkhumian, Rachan, Gurian,
Acharan, Machakhelian, Livanan, Imerkhevian, Taoan, Mtiul-Gudamaqarian, Mokhevian,
Khevsurian, Pshavian, Tushian, Her, Fereydanian, etc.
Group B:
palatal dialects: Zan (Megrelian, Laz); Svan (Balszemoan, Balskvemoan, Lashkh, Lentekhian,
Cholurulian) 287
.
287 For other classifications see: T. Putkaradze, E. Dadiani, L. Khachapuridze, The issues of classification
of the Georgian idioms, presentations of 29th National Dialectological Scientific Session,
Kutaisi, 2009.
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