Common Functional Basis of Expression of Subordination in Non-Literary Kartvelian Languages and Dialects of the Georgian Language

Abstract

Non-literary Kartvelian languages (Megrelian, Laz and Svan) and the dialects of the Georgian language form a communicative system of oral speech. Therefore, numerous language phenomena have a common basis of expression in Kartvelian languages and Georgian dialects. An example of the above-mentioned is a certain type of complex sentence with a peculiar particle and intonation. The speakers use the construction under analysis chiefly for expressing emotional tension in narration. In Megrelian, the formal marker of the above-mentioned construction is the particle -o, which connects two clauses based on subordination. In such construction, the subordinate clause has the initial position. The particle -o is added to its final member and is pronounced with a rising tone, which points to incompleteness. Hence, the idea becomes complete in the following main clause.Mention should be made of the fact that the construction of the subordinate clause with particle -o is overly complicated. It is based on the principle of co-subordination, but the verb of saying/ordering semantics, implied as the main component, is mostly omitted.The particle -o  which performs a subordinating function is translated into Georgian by means of the conjunction rom “that”. For instance, Megrelian  kars mioǯinuo, mudgareni kimk’oč’ aru (Khubua, 3, 11)  is literally translated into Georgian as: kars  šexedaa , raγaca ac’eria;  but a complete translation is: kars  rom šexeda , [dainaxa], raγaca ac’eria “when he/she looked at the door, he/she saw that something was written on it”.  

Similar hypotactic constructions are found in Georgian dialects. Instead of the particle -o found in Megrelian, we find the particle -a in the Ingiloy texts recorded by M. Janashvili. In the dialects of Guria and Achara, the vowel of the final member of the subordinate clause is lengthened, which is a functional equivalent of the above-mentioned Megrelian and Ingiloy cases. It is highly probable that the particles -o and -a are of the same origin: they are either interrogative particles or prosodic elements (clitics) obtained from the verbs o-ren / a-ris (third person singular form of the verb “to be”); In Svan, this type of hypotactic construction is expressed by means of the particle -c “-ts”. In non-literary Kartvelian languages and Georgian dialects, particles and intonation serve as subordinating conjunctions and emphasize the definiteness of the fact expressed by the hypotactic construction.