# Georgian: N on the Georgian QWERTY keyboard



## winenous

Hi

Here's a random question I have found it impossible to answer with Google...

Using the Microsoft/Windows "Georgian (QWERTY)" keyboard - at least on the soft version, shown above - "shift ნ" gives you "N". That implies to me that Georgians often feel the need to type "N". But what is it used for?

(It seems you might need to enlarge the image by clicking on it to clearly see what I mean.)

Cheers

Steve


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## AndrasBP

In Russian, the Latin letter "N" is used for numbering buildings or institutions:

школа N 878 = school number 878 (is # used here in English?) 
ДЕТСКИЙ САД N 42 (_КОРПУС N 2_) = kindergarten number 42 (building number 2)
магазин N 8 = shop number 8

I suppose it's the same in Georgian.


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## winenous

Thanks for the reply.

You could be right, but flicking through a Georgian magazine and checking street addresses, I see numbers with no leading symbol, some with "#", and some with "No" (with the "o" underlined and superscripted) . But maybe more common for schools? I noticed wine "factories" had numbers in Soviet times too.

BTW "#" is mainly used in American English, but is now entering British too. "No" is more British, but maybe a bit old-fashioned now. I think it is more common now to drop the leading symbol - leaving it to readers to spot the number with no assistance!


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## winenous

Ah, just seen a FB page "Bina N37 •  ბინა N37" - Flat 37


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## AndrasBP

There are a number of hits on Georgian websites if you google "ბინა Nx" (any number).


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## winenous

Indeed. Also if you google "სკოლა Nx" for example, I see. I should have thought of using google before to convince myself your suggestion was correct. I suppose the problem with my magazine is that there are so many typographic alternatives available in print.

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction!


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## maritoes

Hi! This is very old, but as a Georgian I want to clarify if anyone else sees this post. The keyboard just doesn't have anything else to put when you type with the shift key, so it just defaults to the English N. Alternatively, it will put another letter, such as how ს and შ are assigned to the same key.


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## winenous

maritoes said:


> Hi! This is very old, but as a Georgian I want to clarify if anyone else sees this post. The keyboard just doesn't have anything else to put when you type with the shift key, so it just defaults to the English N. Alternatively, it will put another letter, such as how ს and შ are assigned to the same key.


As you point out, some shifted keys give you other Georgian letters, but not all of them. On the Microsoft keyboard shift-ი does not give any letter at all (neither Georgian nor Latin), and shift-ე does not give any letter. However, shift-ნ *does *give _N_. 

Microsoft clearly decided that _N_ was something Georgians would need to type, while other Latin letters were not so important.


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## Linnets

It stands for number (_numero_): Eastern European languages (Russian, Georgian, and so on) often use N or №, in a way similar to American English #. That's why № was originally in the Cyrillic typewriter keyboard (and Windows codepage), even if the letter N does not exist in Russian Cyrillic alphabet and the symbol itself is sometimes used also in other European languages. I suspect there was a French influence in the choice of this Western-like symbol.


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## Stoggler

Linnets said:


> It stands for number (_numero_): Eastern European languages (Russian, Georgian, and so on) often use N or №, in a way similar to American English #.


British English also uses № (or No./no.).  The American # hasn’t really caught on here.


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## winenous

Stoggler said:


> British English also uses № (or No./no.)


We do indeed, but my impression is that it's use has reduced in the last 50 years or so. Over the centuries we have eventually learned to spot numbers by the presence of numerical characters  

OK, that was a bit flippant, and the "No." indicates that we are talking about a numerial *ID*, rather than a number that can be treated mathematically, but usually that too is clear from the context. Also "number" might be an unavoidable part of the name of the ID, as in "Serial No."

(Thank you for the background information @Linnets!)


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## green_muse

AndrasBP said:


> In Russian, the Latin letter "N" is used for numbering buildings or institutions:
> 
> школа N 878 = school number 878 (is # used here in English?)
> ДЕТСКИЙ САД N 42 (_КОРПУС N 2_) = kindergarten number 42 (building number 2)
> магазин N 8 = shop number 8
> 
> I suppose it's the same in Georgian.


I agree and confirm this. N is used here instead of the word "number".


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