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

Part II
The ECRML and the Linguistic Situation
in Modern Georgia
2.1. On Principles of the ECRML
2.1.1. Major Term of the Charter:
A Regional or a Minority Language
One of the reasons for problematic interpretations of the "Charter’s"
provisions within the Russian or Georgian linguistic contexts is an
embiguous translation:
The widely used main term regional or minority language is transferred
even into the Georgian title variants of the translated Charter incorrectly
as follows: regional and (or) minority language; thus, many are of
the opinion that the Charter generally considers regional as well as minority
languages.
In fact, the three-componential term regional or minority language
is a "unified concept" 316 and means the historical language of autochthonous
population that is not a state language in a given state 317
.
The Charter does not discuss a language as a mean of communication;
accordingly, the Charter does not stipulate the "linguistic rights" of
318
an individual . The term language indicated in this European convention
is, first of all, understood as a integral (central) sign of historical
culture of an ethnos; namely, note 17 of the "European Charter for Regional
or Minority Languages" says:
316 See note 20.
317 Rather than a language of a new minority.
318 Cf.: The Charter aims at protecting a language of a historical minority rather than
elaboration of linguistic rights of an ethnic (linguistic-cultural) minority (see below).
293