Judaeo-Georgian

Judaeo-Georgian (Georgian: ყივრული ენა) (also known as Kivruli and Gruzinic) is the traditional Georgian dialect spoken by the Georgian Jews, the ancient Jewish community of the South Caucasus nation of Georgia.

Judaeo-Georgian
ყივრული/קיברולי Kivruli
Native toGeorgia, Israel, Russia, Belgium, United States
Native speakers
60,000 (2015–2018)[1]
Georgian script
Hebrew script
Language codes
ISO 639-3jge
Glottologjude1258

Relationship to other languages

Judaeo-Georgian is the only Kartvelian Jewish dialect. Its status as a distinct language from the Georgian language is the subject of some debate.

With the exception of a significant number of Hebrew loanwords, the language is reportedly largely mutually intelligible with Georgian.

Distribution

Judaeo-Georgian has approximately 85,000 speakers. These include 20,000 speakers in Georgia (1995 est.), and about 59,800 speakers in Israel (2000 est.). The language has approximately 4,000 speakers in New York and undetermined numbers in other communities in the United States, Russia, Belgium, and Canada.

Status

Judaeo-Georgian is, like many Jewish languages spoken there, on the decline in Israel. Its status in Georgia itself is unchanged, except by the rapid decline in the size of the language community, due to emigration beginning in the 1970s, which has seen the departure of some 80% of the community. Authoritative studies of its continued use by other expatriate communities of Georgian Jews have not been conducted.

References
  1. Judaeo-Georgian at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) closed access
Judaeo-Georgian test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
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