Géorgien survival kit

About this kit

Georgian (ქართული) is the official language of Georgia, spoken by around four million people at the foot of the Caucasus. It is written with its own unique alphabet, mkhedruli, recognised by UNESCO as intangible heritage. With this kit, you have the bare essentials to greet people, find your way around and share a glass of wine in Tbilisi or the Kakheti valley.

Georgian (ქართული, kartuli) is the official language of Georgia and one of the oldest living literary languages, with inscriptions dating back to the 5th century. Spoken by around four million people, it belongs to the Kartvelian family, which is entirely isolated: it has no genetic link to Russian, Turkish, Armenian or the Indo-European languages of its neighbours. This singularity explains both its reputation as a demanding language and its strong identity.

Georgian is written with its own alphabet, mkhedruli, one of only fourteen writing systems still in active use worldwide and inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list since 2016. Its thirty-three rounded, elegant letters make no distinction between uppercase and lowercase. The phonetics can disorient learners with ejective consonants (k', t', p') and dense consonant clusters, but each letter is pronounced regularly: no surprises once the alphabet is mastered.

Travelling in Georgia means discovering a country at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, the self-proclaimed cradle of wine with 8,000 years of viticulture. The culture of the meal takes on an almost sacred dimension around the supra, a ritual feast led by a tamada who orchestrates the toasts. This kit gathers the bare essentials to greet warmly, find your way through the streets of Tbilisi, order a khachapuri, signal pain or take your leave. You will also find cultural tips to avoid faux pas around wine, the Orthodox Church and Georgian linguistic pride. Memorise these phrases before leaving and you will instantly win the sympathy of your hosts.