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Mingrelian grammar
Grammar of the Mingrelian language From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Mingrelian is a Kartvelian language from the Caucasus. Like other languages in the area, it contains a large number of grammatical cases and shows ergative alignment. Mingrelian is mostly agglutinative in terms of morphological inflection, although it has no grammatical gender or noun classes, unlike neighbouring Caucasian languages from the Nakh-Dagestanian family. Mingrelian verbs index numerous tense-aspect-moods, with traces of evidentiality indexation.
Mingrelian has two dialects: Zugdidi-Samurzakano (northwestern) and Senaki-Martvili (southeastern).
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Grammatical cases
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Mingrelian has nine grammatical cases, which are indexed in all nominals. Unlike neighboring Nakh-Dagestanian languages, Mingrelian verbs show no case markings. Grammatical case endings are the same for nouns and adjectives, both in the singular and the plural, unlike many Indo-European languages such as Latin or Polish. Mingrelian case morphemes are shown below.
Nominals
Mingrelian nouns and adjectives occur in singular and plural forms.
Example of noun declension
Example of the declension of noun stem კოჩ- (ǩoç- “man”) in singular and plural forms.
Example of adjective declension
Declension of stem ჯვეშ- (ǯveş- “old”) in singular and plural forms.
Comparison with other Kartvelian languages
Example of the declension of noun stem კოჩ- (ǩoç- “man”) in comparison to corresponding Laz კოჩ- (ǩoç-) , Georgian კაც- (kʼats-) and Svan č'äš (“husband”) forms. Note that Laz does not index adverbial and benefactive cases through suffixes, neither do Georgian nor Svan index the lative or ablative.
Traces of noun classification
Mingrelian has traces of a noun classification system that distinguishes animacy semantically along the lines of human-like or un-human-like.
| Concrete | Abstract | ||
| Animate | Inanimate | ||
| Human and "human-like" beings (e.g. God, deities, angels) | Animals | Inanimate physical entities | Abstract objects |
| Human-like | Un-human-like | ||
| mi? ("who?") | mu? ("what?") | ||
Pronouns
Personal pronouns (nominative)
| I | მა | ma |
| You (sing.) | სი | si |
| We | ჩქი/ჩქჷ | çki/çkə |
| You (pl.) | თქვა | tkva |
Demonstrative pronouns (nominative)
| Singular | Plural | ||
| This | ina | These | (t)enepi |
| That | ena | Those | (t)inepi |
Possessive pronouns
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Verbs
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The Mingrelian verb has the categories of person, number, version, tense, mood, aspect, voice, and verbal focus.
Personality and number
In Mingrelian the verbs can be monovalent, bivalent or trivalent. This feature is also shared with other Kartvelian languages.
- Monovalent verbs are represented only by subjective person and are always intransitive.
- Bivalent verbs together with subject have also one object (direct or indirect). They are:
- transitive in the case of direct object
- intransitive if the object is indirect
- Trivalent verbs have one subject and always both, direct and indirect objects and are ditransitive.
Table of verb personality
The person may be singular or plural.
Subject and object markers in Mingrelian are roughly the same as in Laz.
Subject markers
Object markers
In pre-consonant position the markers v- and g- may change phonetically:
- v- → b- (in Zugdidi-Samurzakano dialect)
- g- → r- (in both dialects)
Version
In Mingrelian there are four types of version marking:
- subjective – shows that the action is intended for oneself,
- objective – action is intended for another person,
- objective-passive – the action is intended for another person and at the same time indicating the passiveness of subject,
- neutral – neutral with respect to intention.
Tenses
In total there are 20 screeves in Mingrelian. They are grouped in four series.
Moods
Indicative
Indicative statement claims that the proposition should be taken as an apparent fact.
Interrogative
There are two ways to express interrogative mood:
- with interrogative words, e.g. mi? (who?), mu? (what?), so? (where?), muzhams? (when?), muç̌o? (how?) etc.
- by attaching an interrogative particle -o to the end of a verb.
Imperative
Indicates a command or request. The aorist form is used when addressing 2nd person (singular/plural) and aorist optative in all other cases.
Subjunctive
Expresses possibility, wish, desire. The subjunctive mood in Mingrelian is provided by optative screeves.
Conditional
Indicates condition in contrary to a fact. It is produced by adding a verbal suffix -ǩo(ni) to the end of a verb.
Aspect
In Mingrelian the verbs may have two aspects depending on the completeness of action (perfective aspect) or the lack of it (imperfective aspect). The perfective aspect is derived by adding a preverb to the verb.
In 2nd, 3rd, 4th series the verbs equally have both aspect forms, while in the 1st series the screeves are distributed between two aspects.
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Lexicon
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Kinship terms
Mingrelian words for kinship reflect both generation and gender, although many words are derived. It has a mixed system of classificatory and descriptive system. Mingrelian kinship terms denote a large number of members of one's extended family as well as in-laws.
Nuclear family
Extended family
In-laws and step-family
Numerals
Mingrelian numerals follow a vigesimal system (i.e. base 20), like in Georgian.
Cardinal numbers
Most of the Mingrelian cardinal numbers are inherited from Proto-Kartvelian language, except arti (one) and eçi (twenty), which are considered as a Karto-Zan heritage, since there are no regular equivalents in Svan.
| Mingrelian | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ართი | arti |
| 2 | ჟირი/ჟჷრი | zhiri/zhəri |
| 3 | სუმი | sumi |
| 4 | ოთხი | otxi |
| 5 | ხუთი | xuti |
| 6 | ამშვი | amşvi |
| 7 | შქვითი | şkviti |
| 8 | (ბ)რუო | (b)ruo |
| 9 | ჩხორო | çxoro |
| 10 | ვითი | viti |
| 11 | ვითაართი | vitaarti |
| 12 | ვითოჟირი | vitozhiri |
| 13 | ვითოსუმი | vitosumi |
| 14 | ვითაანთხი | vitaantxi |
| 15 | ვითოხუთი | vitoxuti |
| 20 | ეჩი | eçi |
| 21 | ეჩდოართი | eçdoarti |
| 30 | ეჩდოვითი | eçdoviti |
| 40 | ჟაარნეჩი | zhaarneçi |
| 50 | ჟაარნეჩიდოვიჩი | zhaarneçidoviti |
| 60 | სუმონეჩი | sumoneçi |
| 70 | სუმონეჩდოვითი | sumoneçdoviti |
| 80 | ოთხონეჩი | otxoneçi |
| 90 | ოთხონეჩდოვითი | otxoneçdoviti |
| 100 | ოში | oşi |
| 101 | ოშართი | oşarti |
| 102 | ოშჟირი | oşzhiri |
| 110 | ოშვითი | oşviti |
| 200 | ჟიროში | zhiroşi |
| 500 | ხუთოში | xutoşi |
| 1000 | ანთასი | antasi |
| 1999 | ანთას ჩხოროშ ოთხონეჩდოვითოჩხორო | antas çxoroş otxoneçdovitoçxoro |
| 2000 | ჟირი ანთასი | zhiri antasi |
| 10000 | ვითი ანთასი | viti antasi |
Ordinal numbers
In Mingrelian, ordinal numbers are derived by the circumfix ma- -a, with the exception of the word for “first”, პირველი (p̌irveli), which is not derived from the word for “one” ართი arti.
| Mingrelian | |
|---|---|
| 1st | p̌irveli |
| 2nd | mazhira |
| 3rd | masuma |
| 4th | maotxa/mantxa |
| 5th | maxuta |
| 6th | maamşva |
| 7th | maşkvita |
| 8th | maruo |
| 9th | maçxora |
| 10th | mavita |
| 11th | mavitaarta |
| 12th | mavitozhira |
| 20th | maeça |
| 21st | eçdomaarta |
| 30th | eçdomavita |
| 100th | maoşa |
| 101st | oşmaarta |
| 102nd | oşmazhira |
| 110th | oşmavita |
| 200th | mazhiroşa |
| 500th | maxutoşa |
| 1000th | maantasa |
Fractional numbers
The fractional numbers derivation rule in Mingrelian is akin to Old Georgian and Svan.
| Mingrelian/Laz | na-NUMBER-al/or |
|---|
| Mingrelian | |
|---|---|
| whole | teli |
| 1/2 | gverdi |
| 1/3 | nasumori |
| 1/4 | naotxali or
naantxali |
| 1/5 | naxutali |
| 1/6 | naamşvali |
| 1/7 | naşkvitali |
| 1/8 | naruali |
| 1/9 | naçxorali |
| 1/10 | navitali |
| 1/11 | navitaartali |
| 1/12 | navitozhirali |
| 1/20 | naeçali |
| 1/100 | naoşali |
| 1/1000 | naantasali |
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References
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