Svan (ლუშნუ ნინ/შკა̈ნ)

Svan is a South Caucasian language spoken by about 30,000 people in in the northwest of Georgia. There are also several thousand Svan speakers in the republic of Abkhazia.

Svan has no official status in Georgia and there is no standard written form. When it is written, a version of the Georgian alphabet is usually used, though the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets are also used occasionally.

Georgian alphabet for Svan

Svan alphabet and pronunciation

Information about the pronunciation of Svan compiled by Wolfram Siegel

Sample text

Sample text in Svan

Translation

Gigo Gelvan lived in the village of Letod. The Qipians were his neighbours, but he didn't want them as neighbours, and especially not as relations. At the time Dadian was king, the ruler of all.

Source: http://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/caucasica/svanica/gelvan.htm

Links

Information about the Svan language and culture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svan_language
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=sva
http://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/armazi/armaziII/svan/svan.htm
http://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/ecling/ecling02.htm

Related languages

Abaza, Abhkaz, Adyghe, Avar, Chechen, Dargwa, Georgian, Ingush, Kabardian, Lak, Laz, Lezgian, Svan, Tabassaran, Tsez, Ubykh

Other languages written with the Cyrillic alphabet