Languages spoken in Georgia – can I communicate in English outside Tbilisi? Is Russian used in Georgia? What is the official language in Georgia? What about languages of the minorities in Georgia? Those are the main questions we’ll focus on in this episode of The Caucasus podcast.
What is the official language in Georgia?
Sometimes I get questions about official language in Georgia. Often people who ask it are having in mind that maybe also Russian, due to historical ties, is one of the official languages. But you have to know two quite important facts. Firstly, Georgians are very proud of their language, which is one of the oldest ones. This is based among others on the usage of the grammatical constructions that no longer exist in European languages for example. Even in Soviet times, when there were attempts to diminish the status of Georgian language it ended up with riots and changes were not implemented. Secondly, there are no strong ties with any other state that may end up with adding any other language as the official one.
Therefore, Georgian is the official language in Georgia. So the quite unique language, with own alphabet and being part of the Kartvelian language family. Nevertheless Georgian is not that hard to learn as some people say. We show you this on regular basis with our study materials for Georgian language we publish in Languages of the Caucasus. However, the question remains, what are other languages spoken in Georgia?
Do Georgians speak English?
Let’s start with English, one of the most popular languages in the world nowadays. Is it possible to go to Georgia and communicate only in English? Yes and no. It’s a fact that for last several years Georgians study English in school, so in theory everyone being 30 years old or less should know English at least a bit. I’m not sure how it is in your country, but in mine and in Georgia the same, it’s pretty hard to learn fluently English just at school. Therefore, in biggest cities like Tbilisi, Kutaisi or Batumi you may have a chance in communicating in English. Maybe in some tourist places some people speak a bit of English. In smaller cities or villages in the mountains you may assume communication in English as a nice surprise than a standard to expect.
In Tbilisi however, especially with growing community of expats, you may communicate in English or Russian with foreigners and companies helping foreigners. That is why I said yes and no.
Do Georgians understand Russian?
There are many people, especially the ones older than 35 years old who understand at least a bit Russian. Maybe they can speak fluently. This does not mean however that Georgians are bilingual. No matter the colonial times from Russia there are many Georgians who do not speak Russian. This is especially in towns and villages. The other language was never of need for them. Also they were not attending Russian schools, but Georgian ones.
For those of you who speak Russian, especially now as we record this episode, you should keep in mind that speaking Russian may immediately make your interlocutor believe you are from Russia. After the war Russia started with Ukraine, sanctions and many Russians fleeing from there to Georgia, the Russian language is commonly used and can be heard on the streets. However, the Georgians who are not big fans of Russian state, Russian occupation of Georgian territories etc. may treat you as you were Russian, so the representant of the nation doing all those activities. If you are Russian, you may be already expecting it, but not being Russian, that may come as a surprise.
I can share with you one of my stories from Tbilisi.
I was buying some vegetables and asking about the price in Georgian, but one of the ladies was replying to me in Russian. I assume she was not really believing I can understand if she did that in Georgian. The other one said to her ”Stop answering to her in Russian. You hear she is ours, she speaks Georgian.” Of course I had to tell them where I am from, because I do not look really Georgian. By the way I do not look very Slavic either, so some people in Georgia do not believe me I am Polish.
Coming back to Russian, this is a language you can communicate in in Georgia, but it gained some negative political connotations. Therefore it is better to be aware of it. The fact remains that especially for elder people Russian may be seen as equivalent of foreign language as it was for the ladies selling me vegetables.
Which are other languages spoken in Georgia?
We have covered the main two foreign languages that are present in Georgia. Those are although not the only ones of course. Sometimes you may meet a person speaking other European languages. Especially it may be German and French or Polish, sometimes Turkish. The reason for that is as in many post-Soviet counties, Georgian citizens were traveling abroad to work and earn money which often they were sending back home to families.
The other languages, especially in Kvemo Kartli and Javakheti, that you may hear are Azerbaijani and Armenian. This is connected with the Azerbaijani and Armenian minorities living there. More about the situation of those minorities we have covered in episode 3. of this podcast. Based on the official data from 2014 the 6.3% of population of Georgia is Azerbaijani nationality and 4.5% is Armenian. There are no more recent data available. That is why also those are the languages present in Georgia.
I hope we have answered all your questions about languages spoken in Georgia. Thank you for today and see you in the next episode of the Caucasus podcast!
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