Gruzinic (also known as Kivruli and Judæo-Georgian) is the traditional language spoken by the Gruzim, the ancient Jewish community of the Caucasus nation of Georgia.

Relationship to other languages

Gruzinic is the only Kartvelian Jewish language. Its status as a distinct language from the Georgian language is the subject of subject of some debate.

With the exception of a large number of Hebrew loanwords, the language is reportedly largely mutually intelligible with Georgian. Aside from the large number of Hebrew loanwords, the other distinguishing characteristic of the language is that it is often written using the Hebrew alphabet.

Gruzinic is regarded by some authorities (see [1]) as little more than a market jargon.

History

The history of the development of Gruzinic is shrouded by history. There is little linguistic evidence, in the form of loanwords from languages other than Hebrew and Aramaic, in Gruzinic to indicate the ancestral origins of the Gruzim.

Distribution

Gruzinic has approximately 85,000 speakers. These include 20,000 speakers in Georgia (1995 est.), and about 59,800 speakers in Israel (2000 est.). The language has approximately 4,000 speakers in New York and undetermined numbers in other communities in Russia, Belgium, the United States and Canada.

Status

Gruzinic is, like most Jewish languages spoken in Israel, on the decline. Its status in Georgia itself is unchanged, except by the rapid decline in the size of the language community, due to emigration beginning in the 1970s, which has seen the departure of some 80% of the community. Authoritative studies, of its continued use by other expatriate communities of Gruzim, have not been conducted.

Resources

• Ethnologue's Judæo-Georgian entry
• LanguageServer's Judæo-Georgian page
• South Caucasian Languages page