On Several Archaic Lexical Units in the Khevsurian Dialect

Abstract

The Khevsurian dialect represents one of the oldest strata of the Eastern Georgian dialectal system, preserving many prehistoric and archaic elements. Khevsureti – owing to its geographical isolation and the conservative character of its traditional culture – is exceptionally interesting for the study of lexical archaisms.
An archaism, as is well known, is the term given to a word or expression that was once used in ordinary speech but was subsequently replaced by the modern language with a new form. Archaisms constitute an important source for the study of the history of a language and of ethnocultural memory. They are not merely lexical units, but also a mark of the folk mode of thought.
The article presents and examines, from the standpoint of linguistic and cultural context, several such interesting examples from the archaic lexical layer of Khevsurian, words that in modern Georgian are either entirely forgotten or have changed in meaning. These word-forms are: khali, ts’k’ent’va, baq’ali, butsutsa, gonji, bot’i, chkheri, paragi, gurzi, pia, ts’ints’lebi...
It may be said that the Khevsurian dialect preserves the most ancient layer of the Georgian language, one that constitutes a signifificant part of cultural memory.
The study of archaic vocabulary is not merely a linguistic task – it is a means of investigating our national identity and historical heritage.
For this reason, it is essential that research into the Khevsurian dialect continue, that living speech be recorded, and that modern lexical corpora be created, so that this archaic layer may be restored to future generations as well.