Georgian alphabet granted cultural heritage status

The ancient Georgian alphabet has been granted the national status of cultural heritage. Mkhedruli script of the Queen Tamar.
Agenda.ge, 10 Mar 2015 - 15:49, Tbilisi,Georgia

The ancient Georgian alphabet has been granted the national status of cultural heritage.

Georgian is written in its own unique script that once described as one of the most beautifully written languages in the world.

Today there are three types of Georgian scripts; asomtavruli (capitals), nuskhuri (lower case), and Mkhedruli, which is used today in modern Georgian language (the cursive script).

The first scripts are more historic and are used together as upper and lower case in the writings of the Georgian Orthodox Church. Together this writing is called khutsuri (priests' alphabet).

Georgia’s recognition of the country’s alphabet as a cultural status in Georgia was announced today by Nika Antidze, head of the National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation of Georgia. Today he also presented the Agency’s action plan of 2015 and looking ahead, the Agency would approach UNESCO and nominate the Georgian language to appear on its prestigious world intangible cultural heritage list.

"With support of the Government and the entire society we are going to submit those three scripts of the Georgian alphabet as one live culture to the UNESCO World intangible cultural heritage nomination,” he said.

Georgians are extremely proud of their unique writing system, which comprised of 33 characters. It is the only alphabet in the world that is pronounced exactly the same way it is written. In addition all letters are unicameral meaning they make no distinction between upper and lower case.

The country celebrated 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.

In addition, the Georgian alphabet has been named among thetop five most beautiful alphabets in the world by international travel website, Matador Network.

Scholars believed the Georgian alphabet was created in the 4th Century AD, or at the latest in the early 5th Century.