Abstract:
It is common knowledge that Georgian verbs like გრეხს – გრიხა
(twists-twisted) form various series and screeves by means of vowel alternation
ე – ი (e-i). Hence, they are said to be verbs with vowel alternation (ablaut).
Naturally, in order to define the number of such verbs and make their
complete index, it is important to identify stems with vowels ე (e) and ი (i).
Certainly, there are verbs with vowel alternation, representing the stems with
both vowels at a certain stage of development of the Georgian language, for
instance, in the contemporary literary Georgian: კვნეტს – კვნიტა k’vnet’s –
k’vnit’a “crunches – crunched”; ჟღენთს – ჟღინთა ჳγent(h)s – ჳγint(h)a “saturates,
saturated”; სრესს – სრისა sress – srisa “crushes – crushed” and
so on. However, there are verbs represented by stems containing only one vowel
(either ე (e) or ი (i)). Hence, if we are unable to find the stem containing
the second vowel, the stem cannot be considered as the one with the vowel
alternation.
In order to identify a certain stem with the vowel alternation, dialectal
material should be analyzed alongside with the data of the contemporary literary
Georgian. The dialectal data will help to fill the so-called deficient forms
existing in the literary Georgian or to reveal “new” forms with vowel alternation,
not found in the literary language.
Thanks to the above-mentioned approach, we have traced about four
hundred (to be more exact, 398) verb stems with vowel alternation, the
significant part of which is coming from dialectal verbs.
The verbs with vowel alternation found in current Georgian dialects, are
interesting from various viewpoints. First of all, we should find out when they
appeared in the Georgian language and whether they existed in Old and
Middle Georgian.
With this regard, based on the comparison of Old, Middle and New
Georgian data, we give the analyzes of the following verb stems with vowel
alternation: კლეტ /კლიტ k’let’ / k’lit’ “to shut”; სრევ / სრივ srev / sriv “to
shoot”; ჩეკ / ჩიკ t (h)ek’ / t (h)ik’ “to hatch eggs”; ჩხვეპ / ჩხვიპ t (h)xvep’ / t (h)xvip’ “to prick”; ჭყერ / ჭყირ t q’er / t q’ir “to peep”; ჭყლემპ / ჭყლიმპ
t q’lemp’ / t q’limp’ “to squeeze” and the like.
The existence of the above-mentioned stems in Old and Middle Georgian
is important from two viewpoints. Firstly, it proves the alternation of
vowels in the above-mentioned stems. Secondly, it proves that these stems,
although not found in the contemporary literary Georgian, are the stems with
long history of vowel alternation, because they are found on different stages
of the development of the Georgian language and in the dialects of the contemporary
Georgian.
