# Georgian: kontakion to St. Nino



## Fernrohr

Hi,

I'm trying to figure out the correct pronounciation and translation of the kontakion. Here is the text:

მოციქული ქრისტესაგან გამორჩეული, ქადაგი სიტყვისა ღვთისა განსწავლული მახარებელი ცხოვრებისა, წინამძღვარი ქართველთა ერისა გზათა სიმართლისათა დედისა ღვთისა საკუთარი მოწაფე ნინო, შევამკოთ დღეს ყოველთა ძნობითა საღმრთოთა მეოხე მხურვალე, მცველი დაუძინებელი.
(Transcription: motsiquli kristesagan gamorcheuli, kadagi sitqvisa ghvtisa, ganstsavluli, makharebeli tskhovrebisa, tsinamdzghvari kartvelta erisa gzata simartlisata, dedisa ghvtisa sakutari motsape Nino shevamkot dghes qovelta dznobita saghmrtota. meokhi mkhurvale, mtsveli daudzinebeli.)

Here's a performance by Ensemble Basiani: 




It seems that some words differ in the text and the performance, and I'm trying to find an explanation for that. In particular:

1) "ganstsavluli" is sung somewhat like "ga-na-sta-vluli", with an extra syllable and no "ts";
2) "qovelta" is sung "qo-ve-lu-ta", and there's and "i-a" after it.

Are those just archaic pronounciations? If so, what would be the correct way to transcribe them in Mkhedruli?

In addition, Google Translate does not know the words "shevamkot" and "dznobita saghmrtota" (I have found the spelling "saghvtota" in a different transcription). What do they mean :-?


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## aldodusheri

Hello,

this is a very old processional hymn, with lots of religious and archaic words which is quite difficult to understand even for native speakers.

*shemkoba* means adorn, decorate. so *shevamkot* will be something like - let us adorn her (st. Nino)

*dznoba* is an archaic word which is no more used and 99% of Georgians will not know its meaning. I have to search for its meaning and I found out that it means - chant 

and saghvto means sacred 

so, shevamkot dghes qovelta dznobita saghmrtota will be -  let us adorn (shevamkot) her with every (qovelta) dznobita saghmrtota (sacred chant)


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## Fernrohr

Thank you for the reply, that is very helpful!

Could you please explain how "sagh*v*to" changes to "sagh*mr*tota"? I don't know any Georgian, but I'm really curious about the morphology .


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## entangledbank

I don't know much Georgian, but _ghmert-i_ is "god", and vowels sometimes drop out in the morphology, typically _e_ before _r_, so that could easily give _sa-ghmrt-o_ with the common circumfix _sa--o_. I don't know what _-ta_ is. The consonant _v_ sometimes alternates with the vowel _u_ or with zero, but that seems too far from _mr_ to be the explanation. However, it looks like I'm wrong: the Wiktionary article for ღმერთი _ghmerti_ has a number of derived terms with _ghvt-_, so there must be some old alternation that's not present in normal modern Georgian.


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## winenous

Fernrohr said:


> 1) "ganstsavluli" is sung somewhat like "ga-na-sta-vluli", with an extra syllable and no "ts";


I doubt it helps much now, but from careful listening it seems that the consonant cluster "sts" is often pronounced "st" in modern speech. After spending quite a long time trying to pronounce all/both consonants in the cluster, I can quite understand why!

I have heard also detected extra syllables in words in songs, and I have presumed it is to make the song sound better.


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