Georgian Alphabet

The Georgian alphabet (Mkhedruli) is used for writing the Georgian language. Words are read from left to right. The alphabet consists of 33 letters. There are no capital letters; instead, there is a special form of writing the entire word.

There are many theories about the origin of the Georgian alphabet. It is possible that it derived from the  Aramaic 10840–1085F or  Greek 0391–03C9 script. Armenian sources from the 5th to 7th centuries claim that the Georgian script was created by Mesrop Mashtots, just like the Armenian script. However, many scholars, especially Georgian ones, do not support this hypothesis and consider the source to be questionable. According to their version, the Georgian alphabet appeared much earlier than Mashtots. It may have been created by the semi-legendary King Pharnavaz I in the 3rd century BCE. Archaeological findings also cannot provide any definitive clues due to the difficulty of determining their age.

The first Georgian script is considered to be Mrglovani. In the 9th century, the Church Nuskhuri script emerged, and in the 11th century, it evolved into the Civil Mkhedruli script. Both scripts were used for some time. In the 17th century, Nuskhuri became obsolete and fell out of use, while the ways of writing the letters stabilized.