issues of linguistics - Tbilisi State University

expressions are derived from tāvān. Its Georgian version is a nominal part of a compound
predicate: ‘tavanis chabareba’ (to pay the lost amount), ‘tavanis amogheba’ (to demand
the amount won in gambling), etc.
Parallel to ‘tavani’, of similar semantics in colloquial language is its phonetic variant
‘tavni’. This word should not be mixed with a word of Georgian origin ‘Tavni’ – meaning
the main amount of loan without interest (affixal derivate – sa-tavn-o, verb – ga-tavn-eba).
This word is derived from the Georgian noun tavi (head).
One more word ‘tavani’ is found in Georgian literary works. Its meaning is close to head,
top, height; hence, this word is a homonym of the ‘tavani’ which is found in jargon.
Interestingly enough, its vocabulary definition ‘attic’ may be connected with the Persian
lexical unit tāvāne, defined by Iranian lexicographers as a building of stable temperature
constructed behind the living-rooms.
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