Abstract:
Georgia is a multinational country. A very interesting linguo-cultural
picture can be observed in the village of Gombori in Eastern
Georgia on the example of its multiethnic population.
Beginning from the times of the Tsarist Russia, the Russian-
speaking population of Polish origin have inhabited this village
(mainly these were soldiers demobilized from the Russian imperial
army) alongside Georgians. This fact to a certain extent determined
the linguistic situation of the village- both Georgian and Russian languages
were spoken in Gombori.
In the first decades of the 20th century different Muslim ethnic
groups from the neighboring regions of Iran and South Caucasus
started to inhabit the territory with the purpose of earnings. Among
those were: an ethnographic group of Iranian origin, refugees from
the village of Lahij in Azerbaijan (to a certain extent Turkish-turned
and bilingual (Tati-Azerbaijani) and Turkish ethnographic group, refugees
from Iranian Azerbaijan, also bilingual (Azerbaijani-Persian).
However, an Iranian group can be distinguished, which informally
call themselves „Layiji” and call their native language also „Layiji”. It
is a patois of Muslim dialect of Tat language.
For Layijis a quadrilingual situation has developed. Practically
every Gomborian Layiji speaks so-called „Two Native Languages“ –
Layiji (Tati) and Azerbaijani. Every Gomborian Layiji speaks Georgian
and Russian.
The bulk of Gomborian Layiji’s vocabulary consists of words of
Iranian origin i.e. words, which belong to the vocabulary of the Tat
language. Alongside these, it has retained earlier borrowings. Azerbaijani
words, which have become a part of Tati vocabulary, are major
loan-words too.
Gomborian Layiji’s speech has retained Arabic words borrowed
by the Tat language. These are chiefly abstract nouns, religious terms
and generally, words connected with Muslim culture.
In Tat language is a tendency to enrich the vocabulary by Russian
and international socio-political, technical and cultural terms.
In the speech of Gomborian Layijis words are borrowed from Georgian
as well. This is proven by the Georgian pronunciation of a number
of international words. Unlike all dialects of Tati, the speech of Gomborian Layijis is
distinguished by a layer of Georgian loan-words. These are everyday
vocabulary, socio-political and administrative words, the so-called
“exotisms“- ethnonyms, toponyms, names of clothes and meals, etc.
Generally, these are lexical units denoting the phenomena of Georgian
culture, agriculture and industry and customs.
We have been researching the culture and speech of Gomborian
Layijis since 1980s. The material draws a very interesting picture of
the migration processes and demographic situation, linguistic orientation
and pure linguistic trends.
