Vazha-Pshavela’s Worldview on Questions of the Georgian Language

Abstract

A distinguished place in Georgian artistic thought belongs to the greatest creative figure of the nineteenth century, Vazha-Pshavela, who left untouched not a single question on which he did not express his own philosophical views. Vazha-Pshavela’s
thought captured the spirit of his era and conveyed his particular perspectives to the generations that followed.
Within Vazha-Pshavela’s rich body of work, an important place belongs to his views on the purity of the Georgian language and on its significance and value within the world’s intellectual space. For the writer, the Georgian language is an extraordinary phenomenon, through which the national consciousness of the nation is expressed, and through which the national identity and distinctiveness of the Georgian people are conveyed. At the same time, it is worth noting that Vazha-Pshavela’s views on the Georgian language, and his attitude toward the phenomenon of the Georgian language, are distinctive in that, for him, the development of the language is achieved not solely through purely literary means, but is also perfected through the preservation of the linguistic forms of dialectal speech – provided we wish the development of the language to move forward without the identity of the nation being lost.

Through his creative work, Vazha-Pshavela sought to employ the Pshavian dialect alongside the literary language, since it enriched the Georgian language and rendered it more substantive in meaning. He held that the use of the Pshavian dialect was proof that the language of the mountains had remained unmixed and pure within the framework of the unified national language, and that it had preserved the genuine Georgian spirit. The poet is said to have once declared: „You lowlanders have never truly understood Georgian“. In artistic thought, he regarded only the literary language of Shota Rustaveli and David Guramishvili as exemplary. In Vazha’s words, the people – the nation, as the mother of the language – bear and raise the language as a mother raises her child. Every ethnographer and secular writer is duty-bound to introduce to the literary language every notable folk word or form. If such a word or form suits the character of the language, no harm whatsoever is done by this.
The principal reason Vazha went unrecognized in his own time lay in his poetic language itself. For this reason his language was found fault with, and criticism pointed to this very „flaw“. Vazha expressed his view and his unwavering position on the use of regional spoken language on more than one occasion. In Vazha-Pshavela’s thoughts on questions of language, the idea emerges that within the unified linguistic fabric lies a distinctive world, one that encompasses the historical memory of the nation and that constitutes one of culture’s greatest achievements.
The topic is of current relevance and carries substantial theoretical and practical value, insofar as Vazha-Pshavela’s thought on questions of the Georgian language has been little studied and requires investigation with respect to the essence and purpose of the problem raised in his writings. The question of the Georgian language reflected in Vazha-Pshavela’s publicistic writings has lost none of its relevance, whether in Vazha-Pshavela’s own era or at the present stage; it requires renewed engagement, a fresh perspective, and analysis. The problem, naturally, must first be considered within a unified national framework, and thereafter also taken into account within the broader global context. Both the novelty of the topic and the aim of the research undertaken lie precisely in addressing this task.