One Village Patois of Kakhetian Dialect

Abstract

The article discusses the peculiarities of Matani patois of Akhmetian speech of the Kakhetian dialect.

The Kakhetian dialect is divided into three subdialects: Shignikakhuri, Garekakhuri, and Kizikuri. This time, we will focus on the village Matani patois of the Akhmetian speech of Shignikakhuri subdialect.

The village of Matani is characterized by a peculiar, lively speech. Regressive assimilation at the prefix and suffix border is characteristic of the Matani patois: meetsona (liked) shaashina (frightened), geego (heard), imeebs (those). Alongside them, the transformation of the  sound "o" into "a" in the verb form is observed: shemaitane/shamaitane (bring in), maetsona (liked), gamaitane (take out), maitane (bring), mametsi (give me)... the transformation of the sound  "e" into "a" and the transformation of the sound "a" into  "e" is noticed: shaukete (put in), deechirna (has catched), gemeesho/gamaesho (has released)...

In Matani patois the "-av" and "-am" topic-marking verbs  in the third series are used without topic marker with the ending "-ia", along with it the consonant "-n" is frequently added after the root: damibia (have tided), damibertkia/damibertknia (have shaken off), damikhatia/damikhatnia (have pained), gamikhedia/gamikhednia (have looked out).

In Matani patois, the loss of the sound "v" in the verb forms is common: chamoide (arrive/come down), amoide (come up), moida (has come), amoida (has come up), moal (will come) , shamoide (will come in)...

The Matani patois referring the subjects and objects follows the norms of the old Georgian literary language. The second subjective person of the verb is expressed with an affix. It seems that the use of person-marking forms is saved in the Matani patois: dahkrep (you will pick), shescham/shascham (you will eat), dahkri (you will through/drop), gahkidian (they will sell), asdgebi (you will stand up)...

Next to the preserved subjective second person form, it is common to lose the subjective third person mark in the following forms of verbs: mkav (I have), gkav (you have) ...

The vowel ჲ (iota) is characteristic of Matani patois. It is mainly found in the root of the word “floჲti” (floʻti mome, chavitso - give me the slippper to wear), ჲ is also confirmed with the emphatic "a" of the preceding word and the consonant of the verb root “rāsa ჲpikrob”/“rāsa hpikrob” (what are you thinking of). In the latter form, the letter "h" sounds weakly.

The peculiarity of noun case stands out. In particular, dative and genitive cases. With continuous speech the dative case loses the case mark: “im kal utkhari” (tell that woman), “am dzagl ak ra unda” (what does this dog doing here), “tsadi tskhvar mikhede” (go, take care of the sheep), “balg sachmeli achame” (feed the child)... In genitive case the consonant part  of the case mark is lost: “sofli boloshi tskhovrobs martia”(Martia lives at the end of the village), “gobi dziras ar daaba bochola” (don't tide the calf by the fence), “sakhli kutkheshi amaჲ ra unda” (what is it doing at the corner of the house), “sakhli kedelze maakude tokhi” (lean the hoe to the wall of the house)...

With continuous speech in Matani patois, the voiced consonant at the absolute end of the word becomes voiceless, we take the ending "-at" as a mark of adverbial case and have the following forms: katsat (katsad) - manly, tsudat (tsudad) - badly, mshvenivrat (mshvenivrad) - wonderfully, kokhtat (kokhtad) - finely, lamazat (lamazad) -beautifully, kargat (kargad) – well; next to this last form, the “karki” obtained in the same way is confirmed.

Syntactic constructions also stand out, sometimes consonant parts are removed from conjunctions:

'puli ar mkonda, mara (magram) maints vikideჲ'

I didn't have any money, but I bought it anyway";

"dgeჲ chvensa unda chamosuliko, mara (magram) mamatkua";

"He was supposed to come to our place today, but he lied to me";

"tu avige kakachuna (poker), mogakoleb kokoshashi (head)";

"If I took a pocker, I would heat you in you head";

"akamde unda geegvidzna da ar gaugvidznia".

"He should have woken up by now, but he hasn't yet."

In the hypotaxis construction, the intonational possibilities of the conjunction "rom" (that) are clearly evident. The conjunction sometimes has the consonant "m" removed, and sometimes the particle "a" is added:

 "dedakatso, badia (small bowl) mamatsode, ro (rom) salati chavchra";

"Woman, give me a bowl (a small bowl) so I could cut the salad in";

"me utkhari, roma mividodi";

"I told him I would come";

"veraperi gavakete imitoma roma, damigamda";

"I could do nothing because it got dark";

"omdeni puli ak roma, kvelafer ikidis."

"He's got so much money that, he can buy anything."

The Matani patois is particularly rich in terms of vocabulary. The lexical units such as: “ap”, “bobola” (important person), “badia” (bowl), “adaode” (abdaubda) (nonsense), “kintra”/“gamokintra” (stuffed with food), “varkali” (candlestick), “kakachuna”, “kurumsagi” (monkey), “polorchika” (show off, cutesy) and etc. are attested.

There are many names and surnames common in the village of Matani. Some fortresses and churches are known by the surnames or names of the local population. In the names formation the suffix "-an" is used, which is added to the root to express collectivity, and "-t" added to it, indicates belonging. The following names were obtained this way: Erelaant Eklesia (Erelas’ church), Merabaant Sakdari (Merabaanis’church), Baturaant Eklesia (Baturaanis’church), etc. The same rule is used for personal names when the village population refers to a fellow villager familiarly: Shatiriaant Datua (Datua of Shatiraani), Chichiaant Gia (Gia of Chichiaani), Sarkisaant Besika (Besika of Sarkisaani), Baturiaant Nanula (Nanula of Baturaani), Kitesaant Zuria (Kitesaani's Zuria), etc.

The speech of the inhabitants of the village of Matani shows a tendency for the common linguistic vocabulary to derive from the archaic layer. It is also worth noting the fact that Pshav-Khevsurians also live in the village of Matani along with the Kakhetians. It is not excluded that some lexical units may have come from these dialects, which is confirmed by the common lexical units related to sheep farming - cattle breeding:

“mtskemsi” (shepherd), “tokhli” (lamb), “ushobeli” (heifer), “chedila” (castrated ram), “teo” (the guard post of a shepherd and a dog near the night shelter of a flock of sheep), “tiva” (hay), “chuma” (cream), “dvrita” (rennet) and etc.

Thus, the Matani patois of the Kakhetian dialect is a wealth of the Georgian language. Patois, like language, changes over time and space, that is influenced by various conditions. The majority of forms characteristic of Matani patois are not used in the Georgian literary language, though they are not alien to Georgian, which indicates a close relationship between the dialect and the literary Georgian language. The form of the dialect is determined by the internal possibilities of the language. Matani patois is an integral part of the Kakhetian dialect of the Georgian language. A systematic analysis of the unique patterns of patois, vocabulary, and grammatical forms is important for the study of the Kakhetian dialect.