Postpositional Forms/Morphemoids tsin and ukan in the Speech of the Georgian Diaspora in Turkey (Based on Tao Dialect Material)

Abstract

The Tao dialect has undergone intensive contact with Turkish over the course of several centuries. Despite this prolonged influence, the fundamental structural framework of Georgian remains comparatively well preserved within the dialect. Of particular interest are the forms ts’in (“before”) and ukan (“after”), which are originally adverbial in nature but employed as postpositions as well. In scholarly literature, these units are classified as postpositional morphemoids.
The present study examines the morphemoids ts’in and ukan from both formal and functional-semantic perspectives. It demonstrates their realizational patterns, phonetic variants, and semantic nuances in relation to Standard Georgian and dialectal usage.
The analysis is based on dialectal materials recorded during expeditions in the Georgian villages of Tao between 2011 and 2022 and preserved at the Tariel Putkaradze Kartvelology Research Center of ATSU, as well as on published samples of Tao speech.
In the Tao dialect, the morphemoids ts’in and ukan typically occur with dative or genitive case forms and appear with both nouns and pronouns.
The postpositional morphemoid ts’in is attested in the following variants in the Tao dialect: ts’in, ts’ine, ts’ints’in / ts’ina-ts’in ts’inidam / ts’inedam, and ts’ina. It carries different meanings and may indicate:
a) spatial reference, as in k’okhi ts’inidam dajdebi (“you will sit in front of the hut”); b) temporal reference, as in tkhutmeti ts’lis ts’in ak’ viqavit (“we were here fifteen years ago”).
The morphemoid ukan is attested in several variants, including ukan, uknidam, masukan / masuka / maskvan / maskva. Semantically, it displays considerable diversity. It expresses:
a) spatial reference: im tis ukan chakhval;
b) temporal reference: ert c’li ukan moq’q’vavs;
c) associative/accompaniment function: kharept ukan, ch’iftis ukan kalo vijebodit.
The analysis of Tao dialectal data indicates that, even under significant Turkish linguistic influence, the structural organization and semantic differentiation of the postpositional morphemoids ts’in and ukan in the speech of Tao’s autochthonous Georgian population remain predominantly Georgian. In some cases, certain dialect-specific features are also attested.