Turkisms in the Speech of the Village of Ghorjomi

Abstract

The present study examines Turkish lexical borrowings in the Adjarian dialect of the Georgian language and analyzes the processes of their integration into the language, with specific reference to the speech of the village of Ghorjomi. The historical circumstances—namely the Ottoman occupation of southern Georgia—contributed to centuries of lexical influence that can still be observed in the Adjarian dialect today. The loanwords include both purely Turkish elements and items of Persian and Arabic origin that entered Georgian through Turkish and subsequently became established in the language.
The aim of the present study is to identify the semantic, phonetic, and grammatical characteristics of borrowed lexical units. The material was compiled from lexicographic sources as well as through fieldwork conducted during direct meetings with the local population.
The analysis reveals that some foreign lexical units are employed with their original meanings (e.g. bela, takhumi), while others have undergone semantic change. Instances of calquing are also attested in forms adapted to the local linguistic context (e.g. yoldashi, kestane, havli).
Particular attention is paid to the use of foreign stems within Georgian word-formation structures (with the suffixes -ian, -oba, and the prefix–suffix combination u-...-o), as well as to Turkish calques conveyed through Georgian verbal models. The analysis clearly demonstrates that the speech of Ghorjomi actively employs Turkisms, which in certain cases undergo semantic modification and are integrated into the grammatical system of Georgian.
The research is important both for Georgian dialectology and for understanding the historical development of the Georgian language.