Morphology of the Kartvelian Languages : A Descriptive Introduction

Providing thorough coverage of morphology in the Kartvelian languages (Georgian, Zan, Mingrelian, and Svan), this book brings together different strands of Kartvelian linguistics to provide a unique and valuable resource.Kartvelian as a language family has a number of unusual morphosyntactic features that challenge many features of linguistic theory and linguistic typology.The author illustrates how languages within the same family can diverge throughout centuries but still retain striking similarities.The book combines elements of generative and typological frameworks that exist in the field of morphology today and offers full coverage of the Kartvelian language family which have complex yet easily comprehensible morphological systems. The nine chapters cover the basics of Kartvelian morphosyntax and morphology before addressing purely morphological issues on infixation, umlaut, ablaut, suppletion and potential constructions.The book includes: - chapter summaries and new concepts - a wide range of exercises- further reading suggestions that inform readers about the most important scholarship on these languages- interviews with native speaker consultants about their heritage languages- illustrations of various morphological phenomena - dialect geography of the Kartvelian languages- coverage of endangered languages such as Mingrelian and Svan, serving as a documented resource on this group of languages- a glossary of key terms. Written by a native-speaker linguist, this text will serve as a core resource for instructors who prefer to teach morphology through less commonly-taught critical languages, as well as linguists who study non-Indo-European languages and those studying Georgian as a second language.It is also invaluable for readers who do not speak Georgian but who wish to understand the implications of its morphology for typological theories of morphology generally.