Elguja Khintibidze

The popular etymologies of the European designations of the Georgians, Georgia, must be erroneous, viz. a) linking it semantically to Greek and Latin roots (respectively, georgØc “tiller of the land” and georgicus “agricultural”) and b) its derivation from the name of St. George. It probably stems from the Persian-Arabic designation of the Georgians (gurğ, ğurğ), later becoming likened to the Greek-Latin stem just cited. It should be noted here that the term Georgia, at the early stage of its appearance in the Latin world, was not always written in the same transliteration. The first consonant was spelt J (Jorgia), Ge (Georgia), or Gi (Giorgia). The observation appears to be correct according to which the Italian world – where this spelling appeared first – perceived the initial sound of this place name as j, attempting to render it, which points to the clearly Eastern, predominantly Arabic, provenance of this name (Janashia 1959: 226-27). The Russian designation of Georgia (Gruziya) also derives from the Persian gurğ via its Syriac-Arabic development (gurz-ān // gurz-iyān). Gruzin and Gruziya are modified forms of Gurzi, which became established as a term designating Georgia, occurring in Russian chronicles as far back as the 14th century.

The New Persian designation of Georgians gurğ and gurğān stemming from the Ancient Iranian and Middle Persian designations (vrkān, waručān) – and the latter and their Greek variant (^Urkanëa) coincide with the designations of the Ancient Eastern trans-Caspian province of Gurgan, preserved in oriental sources (Tsereteli 1993: 102-103). The ethnonym of the Georgians in Old Armenian (veria, virk) stems from the same root.

The present study is largely based on the findings of Georgian linguistics, viz. (a) the possible interchange of the members of triads of homorganic stops (b-p-p.; g-k-k.) as well as labial and sonors (b-v; r-l) recognized in general phonetics (G. Akhvlediani), in accounting for the interrelationship of different ethnonyms of the same people, recorded in various periods or sources; (b) individual cases of correspondence of suffixes forming geographical names in Georgian and Armenian (A. Shanidze), on the one hand, and in Georgian and Zan (Th. Gamkrelidze, G. Machavariani), on the other; (c) the establishment of the peculiarities of the structure and variational changes of some stems in Indo-European languages (Th. Gamkrelidze, V. Ivanov).

In my view, the term Iberia should also be linked to the same Ancient Iranian designation (vrkān), and not only because it is used in ancient parallel texts as a Greek substitute for the Middle Persian and Parthian designations of Kartli but for the following reasons as well:

a) As hypothesized by Marr (Marr 1935: 189), and later by Deeters (Deeters 1956: 85-86), the i in Iberia is a formant, and ber is the root. This is confirmed by the fact that ethnonyms formed from the root ber are attested as the ancient designation of the Georgians: ber is the name of the ancient habitat of the Georgians in Kakheti (“Ber was the name of the place first built in Kakheti” – Leonti Mroveli); according to classical sources (Hippolytus of Rome), ber-anoi was the name of a tribe living next to Iberians; the root ber is preserved in the name of a Kartvelian tribe, Speri, referred to as Sasperes in classical sources (Herodotus, Xenophon, Apollonius Rhodius, Strabo); the ancient Armenian designations of Kartli, Veria, Virk, are derived from the ber/ver root.

b) The root uel (vel) is reconstructed as the initial one designating the wolf in the family of Indo-European languages. The ancient Indian vŕ.kah is derived by adding the suffix -k^[h]o to the ul[uel] root, forming the initial stem of a group of Georgian ethnonyms deriving from Old Iranian. Not all the designations of the Georgians, deriving from this totemic name, seem to have been formed via the Old Persian, as attested by the Old Armenian veria and virk, these latter being directly linked to the uel root. The root ber found in the ethnonym Iberia must be a counterpart of the same uel root.

The ancient Persian vrk-ān (vark-ān) changed into gurg-ān in New Persian. The change of the final k of the root vark to č (varč-ān), subsequently yielding ğ (gurč-ān, gurğ-ān), before the suffix (i)ya that forms ethnic names, is a regular phonetic phenomenon in the word formation of proto-Aryan and Ancient Persian languages (Tsereteli 1993: 103; Abuladze 1934: 296). As to the alteration of the initial v/g, it is reducible to the level of various dialectal forms of Persian. It has been observed that through the intermingling of the Parsee tribe with the indigenous population of Persia “the term Vehrek (vrk) changed to the purely Persian gorg” (Abuladze 1934: 295). The Old Persian v has been found to yield g in late Middle Persian, while the Old Iranian r. changes to ur (Chkheidze 1993: 113).

I believe that the self-designation of the Georgians – formed from the Kart stem (Kartli, Kartveli) – is related to the cycle of the above ethnonyms of the Georgians. I consider it a parallel linguistic form of the Ancient Iranian, Middle and New Persian designations of the land of the Georgians (Vark-ān, Waruč-ān, Gurg-ān). The relation of the segment kar of the stem Kart to the above ethnonyms and to the Ancient Indic initial form vŕ.kah (New Persian gurg) is accounted for by the established phonetic rules. The provenance of the final t of the Kart stem is to be explained. The possibility of explaining the stem Kart – as hypothesized by me – is the following. The final t of this stem must be the remnant of the -et suffix of geographical names, or of the -ta suffix of genetival derivation, added to the kar root (Suffixaufnahme in Kartvelian see: Boeder 1995). The isolation of the root kar in the ethnonym Kart is supported by the following circumstances:

1) In the family of Indo-European languages the root uel is reconstructed as the initial root denoting wolf, to which the suffixes -k^[h]o- and -p^[h]- are added (Gamkrelidze and Ivanov 1984: 492). The Ancient Indic vŕ.kah is derived by adding the -k^[h]o suffix to the -ul (uel) root. Now, vŕ.kah is the initial stem of the above-said group of ethnonyms of Georgians, deriving from Ancient Iranian. If it is assumed that kar is the root in the Kart lexeme, it follows that, in place of the IE suffix -k^[h]o, the kar segment, regularly substitutive of the cited IE root (vr.), adds the most archaic Georgian suffix -et (Kar-et), forming geographical names from ethnic ones (Her-et-i, Ovs-et-i, Kakh-et-i, Kukh-et-i). Alternatively, which is not ruled out, it may add the -ta suffix of geographical names of genetival derivation (Gogolaur-ta, Chkhikv-ta, Gurian-ta). Subsequent contraction of this suffix yielded the Kart stem. In this case, the formation of the ethnonym Kart should be assumed to have taken place independently from the IE vr. root (which changed in New Persian into gur) rather than in the series of transitory ethnonyms from Anc. Iranian to New Persian (vrkān, waručān, gurgān).

2) The Old Armenian name of Kartli, Vir-k, appears to be similar in construction as the ethnonym *Kar-et. In it vir is the root deriving from the above-cited IE vr. complex, while k must be a plural-forming suffix. It has been noted that the suffix -et, forming Georgian geographical names, has its corresponding -k of plurality, in Armenian (Shanidze 1953: 140).

3) The existence of place names derived from the kar root is attested on the territory of Kartli (Kar-eli), which is suggestive of the identification of a root and suffix (*Kar-et) in the Kart stem.

4) Two more Georgian self-designations, viz. E-gur-i // E-ger-i (= Egrisi ) and Gur-ia, seem to be related to the totemic name of wolf – either to the form (ger-i), attested in Kartvelian languages, or to the IE gurg stem. In the latter case, the final-consonant of the suffix is clipped.

The ethnonym *Karet-i yields the stem Kart through the contraction of the vowel e, caused by the addition to it of the suffix of provenance -el and of the suffixes -ev or -av of geographical names. It has been hypothesized (Burchuladze 1999: 128) that Kartveli and Kartli were derived independently from the Kart stem: *Kart-ev-el-i // *Kart-av-el-i > Kartveli. *Kart-el-i > Kartli. The latter hypothesis is supported by the Megrelian and Laz Kortu (Kort-u=Kart-el): Kort is a regular correspondence of Georgian Kart, and as has been observed (Gamkrelidze and Machavariani 1965: 89-93; see Boeder 1982), the Zanian -u is a transformation of the Georgian -el suffix.

The etymology of the Ancient Iranian vrkān and its corresponding Middle Persian, Parthian, and New Persian geographical names waručān, wiršān, gurgān – deriving from it – is clear. Varkān, deriving from the Ancient Indic vŕ.kah - wolf, denotes “the land of wolves”. Among ancient peoples the wolf, as a totemic animal, gave rise to ethnonyms. According to the ancient religious and mythological notions of the Georgians, the wolf was a totem – a mythical ancestor and patron of the tribe, which is attested by the extant historical sources, the ancient traditions of the Georgian tribes and by surviving specimens of ritual-graphic art (Bardavelidze 1957: 37-53).

For a more detailed analysis of the present hypothesis on the etymology of the designations of the Georgians, their interpretation in the historical context, explanation on the basis of archaeological and ethnographic data, as well as demonstration of the alternation of the br and gr complexes in the other ethnonyms of Indo-European peoples the reader is referred to my monograph devoted to the same problem, published in Georgian and English (Khintibidze 1998).

Bardavelidze, Vera 1957. The Ancient Religious Beliefs and Ritual

Boeder, Winfried 1982 (editor). Thomas V. Gamkrelidze – Givi Mačavariani: Sonantensystem und Ablaut in den Kartwelsprachen. Eine Typologie der Struktur des Gemeinkartwelischen. Ins Deutsche übersetzt, bearbeitet und mit einem Nachwort versehen von Winfried Boeder (= Ars Linguistica 10). Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.

Agreement by Suffixaufnahme. Edited by Franz Planck: 151-215. New york – Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Kartvelian Studies. Tbilisi: Tbilisi University Press (in Georgian).

the Middle Persian and Parthian”, The Foreign and Georgian Terminology Designating Georgia and Georgians: 107-120. Tbilisi: Metsniereba (in Georgian).

Deeters, Gerhardt 1956. “Der Name der Kaukasischen Iberer”, Mn¢mhc Q„rin.

Gamkrelidze, Thomas V. and Givi I. Machavariani 1965. The System of Sonants and

and the Indo-Europeans. Vol. 2. Tbilisi: Tbilisi University Press (in Russian).

The Foreign and Georgian Terminology Designating Georgia and Georgians: 92-106. Tbilisi: Metsniereba (in Georgian).

A New Theory on the Etymology of the Designations of the Georgians