University of Georgia
Associate Professor
Head of the Department of Oriental Studies
Senior Research Fellow, T. Beradze Institute of Kartvelology
Tbilisi, Georgia
a.chulukhidze@ug.edu.ge
Abstract
Over the course of the centuries-long historical and cultural relations between Iran and Georgia, hundreds of Iranian loanwords entered the Georgian language. Some of them have fallen out of use and are attested only in written sources, while others constitute an integral part of the lexical stock of modern literary and spoken Georgian.
Iranian loanwords encompass vocabulary of various meanings and functions. Of particular interest are borrowings related to mythology, religion, and associated peripheral semantic fields, which entered Georgian at different stages in the development of Old, Middle, and New Iranian languages.
Mythological and religious vocabulary, together with related peripheral terminology borrowed from Iranian languages, may conventionally be divided into terms dating from the periods before and after the spread of Christianity in Georgia. These include names of pagan deities; terms denoting benevolent forces and actions; names referring to holy and sacred places; terms designating evil forces, malevolent spirits, and sinister places; words associated with Christian rituals, commandments, and religious objects; and other related categories.
In Georgia, Zoroastrian vocabulary became rooted in Christian religious usage and liturgy and, in some cases, underwent semantic transformation. Phonetic and semantic analysis of these borrowings demonstrates that some were adopted directly from Iranian languages, while others entered Georgian through the mediation of the Armenian language and literary tradition.
Iranian loanwords of a religious character are, in most cases, connected with the period of the spread of Zoroastrianism in Georgia between the fourth and seventh centuries. A substantial part of the vocabulary associated with Zoroastrian beliefs, concepts, and rituals became an integral component of the terminology of the newly established Christian religion during the first centuries of Christianity in Georgia. This layer was later supplemented by a relatively small number of new terms borrowed from New Persian.
The eleventh century marked the beginning of a new stage in the active borrowing and establishment of New Persian vocabulary in Georgian. This development was connected with the widespread diffusion and influence of New Persian language, literature, and folklore throughout the Middle East and the South Caucasus. In some cases, New Persian borrowings overshadowed and replaced vocabulary previously borrowed from Old Persian and Middle Iranian languages.
The study of Iranian loanwords in Georgian has revealed a unique and particularly interesting linguistic phenomenon: the same Iranian root was borrowed into Georgian several times at different stages in the historical development of the Iranian languages. In some cases, such borrowings remain actively used in contemporary Georgian language and literature.
Keywords: Iranian loanwords; etymology; mythology; religion.