Some Features of the Speech of the Georgian-origin Population of Imerkhevi (Code-Switching)

Abstract

The present article examines features of the speech of the ethnically Georgian population living in the Republic of Turkey, formed as a result of complex historical processes. Despite centuries of political and cultural transformations, the Georgian language has remained a stable and resilient system—an organism that neither difficult historical conditions nor the passage of time could dismantle, as it has served as the main foundation of unity and cultural identity for ethnic Georgians.
The aim of the present study is to demonstrate the semantic changes that have emerged in the speech of the Imerkhevi population as a result of Georgian–Turkish linguistic interference, manifested in common Kartvelian lexical units under the influence of Turkish.
The analysis of the material revealed several phenomena that may be considered atypical within the Georgian linguistic domain. It was established that in the speech of the Imerkhevi community such features—distinct from both the Georgian standard language and dialectal forms—are the direct result of Turkish linguistic influence. By way of illustration, both verbal and nominal stems are examined, including such forms as dak’argva (“to lose”), dach’era (“to catch”), dabargva (“to pack up”), gagheba (“to open”), and gamots’eva (“to pull out”), among others.
The results of the present study demonstrate that the semantic peculiarities of these stems are conditioned by the mixing of linguistic codes. Based on empirical and theoretical data, their forms and meanings were analyzed, the relationships between them were established, and the interpretation of the findings made it possible to draw the corresponding conclusions. The underlying basis of these linguistic forms appears to be the complete bilingualism of Imerkhevi Georgians.