Displaced Dialectisms in the Speech of Kutaisi and Oni Jews

Abstract

In the speech of the Georgian Jews living in Western Georgia, in particular, in the speech variety spoken by Kutaisi and Oni Jews მა- (ma-) variant of the verb prefix მო- (mo-) can be found while the use of მა- (ma-) variant is not characteristic of the surrounding/neighboring dialect varieties (Lower Imeretian in case of the speech of Kutaisi Jews and Rachian in case of the the speech of Oni Jews). The first Jews settled in Mtskheta and its surroundings, followed by the expansion of their residential area in Eastern and Southern Georgia. They migrated to Western Georgia and established Jewish communities there much later. In order to distinguish between the Jewish variety of Georgian as spoken by them and local dialect varieties, the displaced Georgian Jews preserved the მა- (ma-) variant of the verb prefix peculiar to Georgian as spoken in Eastern Georgia in Kutaisi and Racha Linguistic environments. In other words, they used a distinctive feature of the Georgian language as spoken in another region to differentiate between their speech and local speech varieties. This kind of linguistic fact/phenomenon can be referred to as displaced dialectism.