Georgian alphabet among world’s most attractive writings

The Georgian alphabet has been named among the top five most beautiful alphabets in the world by an international travel website.

The US-based Matador Network wrote over the last 2,500 years, the Latin alphabet had become so popular it had swept away writing systems of people once dominated by the Romans. Despite the popularity of the Latin symbols, more than two billion people still wrote in other formats "and a few of them displayed an impressive handmade beauty”.

The website ranked Georgian among the five of the most aesthetically attractive alphabets in the world.

"The Georgian alphabet shows an elegance that brings to mind Arabic, combined with a child-like simplicity expressed in rounded curves,” the website wrote.

It also stressed the challenges the language currently faced.

"Squeezed between Turkey and Russia, Georgia has its own language and alphabet, both of which are threatened by Russian domination,” the Matador Network wrote.

"In the last century, Russian imperialist policy resulted in the annexation of more than half of Georgia’s original area. […] The Russian desire to control oil pipelines that run under Georgia also represents a menace to the sovereignty of the local culture.”

Meanwhile Georgians were extremely proud of their unique writing system, which comprised of 33 characters. They celebrated their Mother Language Day on April 14, which marked Georgia's courageous victory over the Soviet repressive machine in maintaining the Georgian language as the country’s official language.

On April 14, 1978, hundreds of Georgians took to the streets in Tbilisi in protest against the Soviet Empire’s decision to remove words in the Georgian Constitution that would guarantee Georgian as the country’s official language.

Local students, professors, teachers and citizens strictly opposed the decision so the Soviet regime was forced to step back. This was an unprecedented case when the regime withdrew and backed down to the community’s demands.

To this day the origins of the Georgian alphabet are poorly known however the scholarly consensus points to the Georgian alphabet being created in the 4th century AD, or at the latest in the early 5th century.

The Georgian alphabet is the only alphabet in the world that is pronounced exactly the same way it is written.

All letters are unicameral meaning they make no distinction between upper and lower case.