# Georgian: foreign -s/z transliterated as -si/zi



## Penyafort

Why do final -s/z in foreign surnames (Cruise, López...) or placenames (Paris, Caracas...) get transliterated into Georgian as -si/zi (-სი/-ზი)? Is there a phonetical reason and that -i is pronounced? Or is it just a spelling feature and the i is mute?


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## AndrasBP

It's not just -s/z, it's _any _word-final consonant.
Georgian adds -i to a name because it's the most common ending of the nominative case, and yes, it is pronounced.

Surnames:
მერკელი -Merkeli
პუტინი - Putini
ტეილორი - Teilori (Taylor)

Place names:
ბერლინი - Berlini
კიევი - Kievi
მადრიდი - Madridi
ზაგრები - Zagrebi


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## entangledbank

The _-i_ is the nominative singular ending for stems ending in a consonant. Stems ending in (other) vowels don't have this ending. For them, the case endings are added directly to the final vowel:

nom. _ena_ "language", dative _enas_
nom. _ɣvino_ "wine", dat. _ɣvinos_
but:
nom. _kali_ "woman", dat. _kals_

There are no common nouns whose stem ends in _-i_, so this is always a nominative ending on them, but some proper names intrinsically end in _-i_, such as Irak'li. Compare that to Mixeil, which ends in a consonant:

nom. _Irak'li_, dat. _Irak'lis_
nom. _Mixeili_, dat. _Mixeils_


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## Penyafort

I see. So foreign names adopt declensions too. I thought it would be the case, as I didn't find anything related to it being a phonetic-spelling thing.

Thank you very much to both!


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## Ruzanna

You're right. It is added to any name ending only in a consonant.


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