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6WC - Georgian | ||
Tags: Georgian | 6 Weeks Challenge (6WC) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| DanIssa Newbie Ireland Joined 6174 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes | Message 9 of 16 01 August 2007 at 8:52pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I'm also into Caucasian languages and just entered Georgian course. The great thing about Georgian is that the orphography is quite easy to understand (consider that there are no uppercases/lowercases and linkages like in Arabic hamzas, etc).
Suggestion to people just starting to learn - get a Georgian keyboard or a set of Georgian stickers (eg. http://www.latkey.com/keyboard_stickers.asp?SubCat=54 ) , this helps typing excersises / electronic workbooks while learning the language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Zorndyke Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6807 days ago 374 posts - 382 votes  Speaks: German*, English Studies: Czech | Message 10 of 16 02 August 2007 at 2:24pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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DanIssa, yes I know these stickers. However, you will see that one becomes confident with the new layout fastly and after a few days you should be able to find every letter without searching.
3rd Week I worked at the exercises of lesson 1 of Einführung in die georgische Sprache a bit every day. I did nothing at all on the 3rd day, though. I also still use EuroTalk as an aid for reviewing vocab - I think hearing the word and seeing its meaning depicted helps slightly to remember the words. On day 4 I began writing the exercises down since it is recommended in the book and I have never really written Georgian by hand. On day 5 I added some more vocabulary, mostly colours. The next day I really struggled with these so I spent a good amount of my 30-minutes session with repeating them over and over agian. But it worked well, today I had almost no problems with them any more. And I finished the written exercises yesterday, so the next step will be to start with lesson 2. However, I want to tell you some more about the exercises of the grammar. First of all to give you a deeper insight into the material it teaches as well as the language itself, but also to illustrate a few problems I had: At the beginning I wondered at the odd syntax, but every time I checked back with the grammar I found always the reason for the odd word order. The Georgian syntax is radically different to everything I have seen before (including Finnish and Swahili) and seems to be totally random at first glance. I hope I will get used to it soon. The second and far greater problem is what I discovered yesterday in one of the exercises. The usage of the cases in this example really puzzles me: The sentence "კარგად წერთ თქვენ ქართულად" (k'argad ts'ert tkven kartulad) means "Do you write Georgian well?" (syntax: "well write you Georgian?"). So კარგი (k'argi) means "good". The ending -ად (-ad) indicates the Adverbialis case which is - as the name suggests - used to form adverbs out of adjectives. That's how k'argi becomes k'argad. So far so good. But why does ქართული (kartuli) "Georgian" also get this ending? I thought this word should have the Accusative ending? The grammar says the Adverbialis has three functions: a) adjective -> adverb b) in what function a person acts (He is here as professor) c) for what a certain thing is used (I use this couch as a bed) I think none of these possibilities applies here, so... !? In the answer the Adverbialis is again used for both the adverb and the object "Georgian". Other sentences in the exercises are for example: ეს არის პროფესორის ვაჟიშვილი, ის კი სახლის პატრონუს ქალიშვილი (es aris p'ropesoris vajishvili, is k'i sakhlis p'atronis kalishvili) which means: "He is the son of the professor, but she is the daughter of the owner of the house". სტუდენტის წიგნია ეს? არა, ეს არის პროფესორის წიგნი (studentis ts'igni'a es? Ara, es aris p'ropesoris ts'igni): "Is this the student's book? No, it's the professor's book". Edited by Zorndyke on 02 August 2007 at 2:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| peterlin Tetraglot Groupie Poland peterlin.jzn.pl Joined 6264 days ago 54 posts - 58 votes Speaks: Polish*, Persian, English, Russian | Message 11 of 16 03 August 2007 at 8:05am | IP Logged | ||||||||
It is also used to mean "in x" where x is the name of a language. Thus "kartulad" = "in Georgian" (as technically it is an adverb, perhaps "Georgian-way" would be a better translation). To be clear "kartulad" is in no way an object, but an adverb, much like Russian "po-gruzinski" or Polish "po gruzińsku" Edited by peterlin on 03 August 2007 at 8:09am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Zorndyke Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6807 days ago 374 posts - 382 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Czech | Message 12 of 16 03 August 2007 at 10:01am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Thank you for clarifying this, peterlin.
One more thing: As from next Wednesday I will be on vacation for 2 weeks, so I will either post my next week's review two days earlier, or I will wait until I return. I don't know how much time for learning I can (or want to) spare within this time so I don't know whether I will be able to keep up with my (or any) schedule. However, I still intend to succesfully end this 6WC and I will try to finish Einführung in die georgische Sprache. Not just for the sake of the Georgian language, but also to see how far an old-school grammar with some more than 600 pages can take you (okay, together with the second part which contains the exercises it's 1200+ pages). I have obtained a 600 pages long Quechuan grammar for the Peruvian Huallaga dialect just the other day and I have also found a new amazing website which sells some really interesting stuff, for example a grammar with 837 pages from '95 for an Australian Aborigine language named Kayardild with just 6 native speakers left. And since I just fall for odd rare languages I got to know how far something like this can take me... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| zhiguli Senior Member Canada Joined 6290 days ago 176 posts - 221 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Mandarin | Message 13 of 16 04 August 2007 at 5:52am | IP Logged | ||||||||
kvali.com still uses the old Windows 95-era fonts, which you can get here: *** I'll assume you're using Windows - if you have IE then it's better to use that, otherwise it doesn't display properly for me in Firefox or Opera. To search Georgian>English, check the box at the top and use Character Map to "type" out the words. It also allows for partial matches (the third dialog box) so if you don't find something the first time you can subtract a few letters and try again.
I'll "third" that - გისურვევ წარმატებებს! Good luck. As for Aronson, while I agree that it can be rather dry and boring for someone who's not a grammar freak and actually wants to be able to speak the language without wading through endless grammar rules, for someone who is it's an invaluable resource that has the answers to some of the trickier questions. Audio files to the exercises are also available online: http://languagelab.bh.indiana.edu/georgian_g311_g312.html
While I can't speak for this as I've never met any Georgians in real life, my experience with them on the internet has, alas, not been very positive. Nearly all of them had a very blase attitude towards foreigners learning their language, wondering why anyone would want to learn such a "useless" language, and unfailingly answering back in English/Russian/any other language when addressed in Georgian. Edited by zhiguli on 04 August 2007 at 9:44am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Zorndyke Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6807 days ago 374 posts - 382 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Czech | Message 14 of 16 04 August 2007 at 8:34am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I think I should warn everyone that these downloads are full of viruses/ malware which so far succesfully resist all my attempts to remove them...
That's not very encouraging. But you can hear these things from time to time from learners of every language. This is probably not a thing specific to Georgian (I hope). Edited by Zorndyke on 04 August 2007 at 8:37am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| zhiguli Senior Member Canada Joined 6290 days ago 176 posts - 221 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Mandarin | Message 15 of 16 04 August 2007 at 9:46am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Oy...terribly sorry. I checked the fonts on this site, they seem to be ok. http://www.georgien-nachrichten.de/index.php?cmd=fonts Any of these should do: <font face=" Geo_Literaturuli, GeoInternet, Geo_Kolkheti, Geo_Arial, Geo_Times, Geo_Academiuri, Geo_Courier, Geo_Dumbadze" size="2" color="maroon">
And indeed, I was able to meet some nice, helpful ones too, even if they are a tiny minority. Edited by zhiguli on 04 August 2007 at 9:46am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Zorndyke Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6807 days ago 374 posts - 382 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Czech | Message 16 of 16 23 August 2007 at 3:54pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Okay, I returned from Spain yesterday and I have to admit that I haven't done anything at all the past two weeks.
Well, nothing for Georgian at least, but for my English: I have read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and three quarters of Dune which is rather demanding because of its vocabulary (what the heck does "veriform" mean?). But here's my log for the 4th Week: I started with lesson 2 which deals with syncope. In this case it means that the last vowel of the stem of a noun is dropped. So mteri (enemy, nominative) becomes mtris (genitive). This feels oddly intuitive, mostly I can say the conjugated word which is to be "syncoped" immediately and afterwards I will find that I was right. However, I have just studied three times that week. A major problem I encountered is that my acquisition of vocabulary can not keep up with my grammatical progress. So I will have to spent even more time on vocabulary and even less on grammar. Normally, the challenge would be over now, because I started it six weeks ago, but I think I will add another 2 weeks to substitute the weeks I lost and to have 6 weeks of real study in this log. Hence, the next two weeks will be the weeks number 5 and 6. Edited by Zorndyke on 23 August 2007 at 3:56pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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