Vowels
Stress
Consonants
Phonotactics

Additional information

More on vowels in standard Georgian

Vowels in dialects

Rising and falling diphthongs in dialects and in Old Georgian

"Semivowels" j and w in Old Georgian and in modern dialects

The vowel found alongside a sonant

From the history of tense/aspect forms

More on stress in standard Georgian
Stress in the dialects
Morphonological changes caused by stress: the iterative tens /aspect forms in dialects
Stress with the distinctive function in dialects
On the history of stress and reduction

Consonants in standard Georgian
The pharyngeal stop q in Old Georgian and modern dialects
The vowel found alongside a sonant

Classes of phonemes
Other consonant clusters

There are 33 phonemes in Modern Standard Georgian: 5 vowels and 28 consonants. The Georgian alphabet has 33 graphemes (letters) for these 33 phonemes (sounds): one grapheme for each sound. Spelling usually coincides with pronunciation.

Vowels

Georgian  has a simple 5 vowels system: front rounded i, e, back rounded u, o, and neutral a (5 vowels systems are actually the most common vowels systems among the world's languages). There are no long vowels in standard Georgian.

Click here to listen Georgian vowels a a, e e, i i, o o  and u ufrom the Georgian alphabet.

Sequences of two vowels are not pronounced as diphthongs. Every vowel creates a syllable.

Recordings:

• More on vowels in standard Georgian
• Vowels in dialects
• Rising and falling diphthongs in dialects and in Old Georgian
• "Semivowels" j and w in Old Georgian and in modern dialects
• Morphonological changes caused by stress: the iterative tense / aspect forms in dialects
• The vowel found alongside a sonant
• From the history of tense / aspect forms
• On the history of stress and reduction

Stress

Vowels create syllables. The number of vowels determines the number of syllables. Stress is very weak and does not change the quality of the vowel.

Stress has no influence on the vowel system.  Stress is placed on the first syllable of a word, and in words of more than four syllables the third syllable from the end is also stressed.

Recordings:

More on stress in standard Georgian
Stress in the dialects
Morphonological changes caused by stress: the iterative tens /aspect forms in dialects
Stress with the distinctive function in dialects
On the history of stress and reduction

Georgian has three groups of consonants: occlusives, spirants and sonorants. Occlusives in turn consist of three groups: voiced, voiceless aspirated, and glottalised. Glottalised consonants are specific for Georgian (as well as for other Kartvelian languages and, generally, for the Caucasian languages).
 

Voiced consonants:

a) occlusives: b d Z j g (b d dz dzh g)
b) spirants (fricatives):  z J R (z zh gh (g))
c) sonorants: v m n l r (v m n l r)

Voiceless consonants:

a) aspirated: f T c C q x h (p t c ch k x h)
b) glottalised: p t w W k y (p' t' c' ch' k' q')
c) spirants: s S (s sh)

Labial voiceless f  as a phoneme does not exist in Georgian.
There are no geminated consonants in Georgian. Loan words that contain geminated consonants in the original language, are usually represented with the simple consonant in Georgian. e. g.:  gramatika gramat'ik'a.

Recordings:

Labials: b f p [b p p']
Dentals: d T t [d t t']
Alveolars: Z c w z s [dz c c' z s]
Postalveolars: j C W J S [dzh ch ch' zh sh]
Velars: g q k [g k k']
Postvelars: R x [gh x]
Uvular: y [q']
Sonorants: r l m n [r l m n]

More information: Consonants in standard Georgian The pharyngeal stop q in Old Georgian and modern dialects The vowel  found alongside a sonant "Semivowels" or non-syllabic vowels j and w in Old Georgian and in the modern dialects Phonotactics Georgian is famous for having many consonants in a row in the words. For example, the consonant cluster in the word vfrcqvni, vprckvni "I am peeling it" consists of seven consonants. Recordings: brdRvnis brdRvinavs brWyvinavs brdgvnis brdgvinavs brch'q'vinavs He/she is plucking He/she is roaring It is sparkling, shining       fSvinavs ganmcxadebeli ganmtvirTavi pshvinavs ganmcxadebeli ganmt'virtavi He/she is  breathing calmly (sleeping)  declaring, anouncing  unloading, relieving The harmonic sequences of consonants (sorting of consonants  based on their type (voiced, voiceless and glottalized) are more widespread. Each consecutive consonant is pronounced further back as compared to the previous one. Sets of stops and fricatives - so called "harmonic complexes"- are characteristic for Georgian. There are two groups of harmonic complexes: group A, in which each complex consists of occlusives, and group B, in which each complex consists of occlusives and spirant consonants.  Harmonic clusters A (occlusive + occlusive): Voiced  occlusives: bg bg:  bgera [bgera] sound dg dg: dgoma [dgoma]  to stand Zg dzg: Zgide [dzgide] edge jg dzhg: jgufi [dzhgupi] group Voiceless aspirated occlusives:  fq pk:  fqvili [pkvili]  flour, wheat flour Tq tk: Tqaruni [tkaruni]   thud (clatter) of horses hoofs cq ck: cqera [ckera]  to look, to watch Cq chk: Cqari [ chkari]  fast, quick Glottalised  occlusives: pk p'k':  pkureba [p'k'ureba] to sprinkle, to spray tk t'k': tkena [t'k'ena]   to make pain, to hurt someone wk c'k': wkaruni [ c'k'aruni] tinkling  Wk ch'k': Wkua [ch'k'ua] mind     Harmonic complexes B (occlusive + spirant) Voiced occlusive + voiced spirant bR [bg] dR [dg] ZR [dzg]  ZR [dzg] bRavis dRe ZReba aZRebs  bgavis   dge  dzgeba adzgebs   It bleats day   He/she eats his/her fill   He/she makes him eat his fill       zR [zg] zR [zg] jR [dzhg] jR [dzhg] zRapari sazRapro jRabnis dajRabna zgap'ari  sazgap'ro  dzhgabnis  dadzhgabna   fairy tale  fantastic He/she is scribbling   H /she scribbled Voiceless aspirated consonant + voiceless spirant fx [px] fx [px] Tx [tx] Tx [tx] fxans zafxuli Txovdeba aTxovebs  pxans zapxuli  txovdeba  atxovebs  He/she scratches  summer  She is getting married   1. He/she makes her get married to smb. 2. He/she lends smth. to smb.     cx [cx] cx [cx] Cx [chx] Cx [chx] cxeni acxobs Cxubi iCxubebs cxeni  acxobs  chxubi  ichxubebs   horse He / she bakes   quarrel  He / she will quarrel     Glottalised occlusive + glottalised spirant py [p'q'] py [p'q'] ty [t'q'] ty [t'q'] sapyari ipyrobs tye satyeo  sap'q'ari ip'q'robs  t'q'e  sat'q'eo   legless He/she conquers forest  concerning forestry      wy [c'q']  wy [c'q']  Wy [ch'q']  Wy [ch'q'] wyali sawyali Wyivili WuWyi c'q'ali  sac'q'ali  ch'q'ivili  ch'uch'q'i   water poor  screech dirt  Substitution of harmonic clusters is frequent in dialects: bartq'i - bgharti (nestling), bobghavs - popxavs (is crawling). dadghan-i - tatxan-i - t'at'q'an-i (mutter), etc" (Besarion Jorbenadze. The Kartvelian Languages and Dialects. Tbilisi: "Mecniereba", 1991, pp. 46-47).   More information: Classes of phonemes Other consonant clusters The vowel found alongside a sonant