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Names of Georgia
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Georgia (/ˈdʒɔːrdʒə/ JOR-jə) is the Western exonym for the country in the Caucasus natively known as Sakartvelo (Georgian: საქართველო [sakʰaɾtʰʷelo] ). The Armenian exonym is Vrastan (Armenian: Վրաստան [vəɾɑsˈtɑn]); predominantly Muslim nations refer to it as Gurjistan or its many similar variations; while in mostly Slavic languages it is Gruziya.
The first mention of the name spelled as "Georgia" was recorded in Italian on the mappa mundi of Pietro Vesconte dated AD 1320.[1] In early appearances in the Latin world, the name was not always written in the same transliteration, the first consonant originally being spelt with J, as Jorgia.[2]
Both endonym and exonym for the country are derived from the same state-forming core and central Georgian region of Kartli (known as Iberia to the Classical and Byzantine sources) around which the early medieval cultural and political unity of the Georgians was formed.
All exonyms are likely derived from gorğān (گرگان), the Persian designation of the Georgians, evolving from Parthian wurğān (𐭅𐭓𐭊𐭍) and Middle Persian wiručān (𐭥𐭫𐭥𐭰𐭠𐭭), rooting out from Old Persian vrkān (𐎺𐎼𐎣𐎠𐎴) meaning "the land of the wolves". This is also reflected in Old Armenian virk (վիրք), it being a source of Ancient Greek ibēríā (Ἰβηρία), that entered Latin as Hiberia. The transformation of vrkān into gorğān and alteration of v into g was a phonetic phenomenon in the word formation of Proto-Aryan and ancient Iranian languages. All exonyms are simply phonetic variations of the same root vrk/varka (𐎺𐎼𐎣) meaning wolf.[3]
The full, official name of the country is simply "Georgia", as specified in the Georgian constitution which reads "Georgia is the name of the state of Georgia."[4] Before the 1995 constitution came into force the country's name was the Republic of Georgia. Since 2005[5] the Georgian Government works actively to remove the Russian-derived exonym Gruziya from usage around the world.[6]
- ^ Rouben Galichian (2007) Countries South of the Caucasus in Medieval Maps: Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. pp. 188—189
- ^ Boeder; et al. (2002). Philology, typology and language structure. Peter Lang. p. 65. ISBN 978-0820459912
- ^ Khintibidze, Elguja (1998), The Designations of the Georgians and Their Etymology, pp. 85-86-87, Tbilisi State University Press, ISBN 5-511-00775-7
- ^ "Article 2.1", Constitution of Georgia, Legislative Herald of Georgia,
'Georgia' is the name of the state of Georgia.
- ^ Mikaberidze, Alexander (2015) Historical Dictionary of Georgia (2 ed.). p.4, Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 978-1-4422-4146-6
- ^ "Government changing official pronunciation of Georgia", The Japan Times, April 15, 2015, archived from the original on 2015-04-18
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