THE CATEGORY OF ITERATIVE IN OLD GEORGIAN
Authors
Tinatin Jikurashvili
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Annotation
This study explores the historical development and eventual disappearance of the Permansive (iterative) category in the Georgian language. Georgian, a member of the Kartvelian language group, has maintained continuity between its written and spoken forms for over sixteen centuries, making Old Georgian comprehensible to modern readers. Unlike Classical Greek or Classical Armenian, which lost their connection to spoken forms, Georgian has evolved without significant divergence.
The Permansive was once a crucial morphological category expressing habitual and iterative actions. Old Georgian featured five Permansive screeves across all three verb series, but these forms began to decline after the 9th century, replaced by conjunctive and present forms. Through an analysis of Gospel manuscripts, this study traces the transformation of Permansive screeves, demonstrating their gradual loss and replacement by non-iterative constructions.
In Modern Georgian, iterativity is no longer a distinct morphological category. Instead, it is conveyed descriptively through contextual markers or particles such as ხოლმე (kholme, meaning "usually"), though its use is restricted in literary language. While some Georgian dialects preserve archaic iterative markers, standard Georgian now relies on generalized expressions and contextual interpretation. This linguistic shift highlights the broader evolution of Georgian grammar and its adaptation to modern usage.
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Authors
Tinatin Jikurashvili
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References:
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