Symbols
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Mingrelian alphabet (Mkhedruli)
All 36 Mingrelian letters in Georgian script, ჲ, ჷ and ჸ included, each with its traditional name and sound. Everyday text uses the first column only; Mtavruli is the all-capitals form for headlines, signs and titles.
Punctuation
Georgian quotation marks, opening low and closing high: „…“.
Currency
The Georgian lari, written after the amount: 20 ₾.
Where it's spoken
Western Georgia: Samegrelo and the Gali district of Abkhazia.
Food of Samegrelo
Megrelian khachapuri and sulguni, elarji, kharcho and hot ajika.
On the map
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The Mingrelian alphabet: 36 letters to copy and paste
Mingrelian, also spelled Megrelian and called მარგალური ნინა (margaluri nina, 'the Mingrelian tongue') by its speakers, has no script of its own: it is written with the Georgian alphabet, the same Mkhedruli letters as Georgian, ა ბ გ დ ე ვ ზ თ ი კ ლ მ ნ ო პ ჟ რ ს ტ უ ფ ქ ღ ყ შ ჩ ც ძ წ ჭ ხ ჯ ჰ. Each letter writes one sound, so a word is read as it is spelled, and like Georgian there are no accents, no dots and no capital at the start of a sentence or a name.
Three more letters write the rest of its sounds, giving 36 in all: ჲ for the y of English yes, ჷ for the short, neutral vowel ə (the sound of the a in English about), and ჸ for the glottal stop, the catch in the throat in the middle of English uh-oh. In the table the extra letters are marked; ჲ sits after ნ, the place it held in the old Georgian alphabet, and ჷ and ჸ follow ჰ at the end. Spelling practice varies between writers and publications, so not every text uses all three extra letters.
Everything else works as in Georgian, and the Georgian Alphabet & Letters collection covers the shared letters in depth. The consonants come in threes: voiced ბ დ გ, breathy ფ თ ქ, and the clipped ejectives პ ტ კ, with ყ q' made further back in the throat and წ ჭ as ejective ts' and ch'. ღ gh, ხ kh, ჟ zh, შ sh, ძ dz and ჯ j round out the set.
Mingrelian letters ჲ, ჷ and ჸ in Unicode, with capitals
The three Mingrelian letters are ordinary Unicode characters in the Georgian block: ჲ U10F2 GEORGIAN LETTER HIE, ჷ U10F7 GEORGIAN LETTER YN and ჸ U10F8 GEORGIAN LETTER ELIFI. ჲ is one of the five old Georgian letters that Georgian itself dropped in its 19th-century spelling reform; Mingrelian, and Svan, kept a use for it. ჷ and ჸ were never part of the Georgian alphabet and exist for Mingrelian and Svan.
Since Unicode 11.0 (2018) every Georgian letter also has a Mtavruli form, the all-capitals style used for headlines, signs and titles: Ჲ U1CB2, Ჷ U1CB7 and Ჸ U1CB8 are the capitals of the extra letters. As in Georgian, Mtavruli is for whole words in capitals, never for the first letter of a sentence: ᲛᲐᲠᲒᲐᲚᲣᲠᲘ ᲜᲘᲜᲐ, not Მარგალური. Older phones and many fonts have no shapes for the Mtavruli letters, and some have none for ჷ and ჸ either, so check that a heading displays where it will be read.
How to type the Mingrelian alphabet on a keyboard
Start with an ordinary Georgian keyboard. Windows: Settings, Time & language, Language & region, add Georgian and choose Georgian (QWERTY), then switch with Windows Space. Mac: System Settings, Keyboard, Input Sources, add Georgian – QWERTY. Phones: add Georgian to the iPhone keyboard list or to Gboard on Android. These give you the 33 shared letters on their Latin sound-alikes, a ა, b ბ, g გ, k კ and so on.
The extra letters ჲ, ჷ and ჸ are usually not on those layouts, which is why people search for a Mingrelian keyboard. The quick way is to copy them from this page. In Microsoft Word, type the code and press AltX: 10F2 for ჲ, 10F7 for ჷ, 10F8 for ჸ. On a Mac, add the Unicode Hex Input source, hold Option and type the same four digits. In HTML they are ჲ ჲ, ჷ ჷ and ჸ ჸ.
For Mingrelian in Latin letters there is no single fixed standard; linguistic work usually writes ə for ჷ and ʔ for ჸ, while informal romanizations vary from writer to writer.
Where Mingrelian is spoken, and the languages around it
Mingrelian is spoken by roughly 540,000 people by CLDR's estimate, almost all of them in Georgia , in the western lowland region of Samegrelo (in Mingrelian სამარგალო, Samargalo) around towns such as Zugdidi, Senaki and Martvili, and in the Gali district of Abkhazia. The historical name of the region is Odishi. Nearly every speaker also speaks Georgian, the language of school, government and print in Georgia, and Mingrelian has no official status. UNESCO counts it among the world's endangered languages.
Mingrelian belongs to the Kartvelian family with Georgian and Svan. Its closest relative is Laz, spoken mostly on Turkey's Black Sea coast; together the two are known as the Zan languages. A Georgian listener catches many familiar roots but cannot simply follow Mingrelian speech, as the grammar and the sound of words differ a good deal. See also the Georgian and Georgia collections, and Armenian and Ossetic for other languages of the region.
Samegrelo is also known across Georgia for its food, and the word Megrelian turns up on Georgian menus: მეგრული ხაჭაპური megruli khach'ap'uri, the cheese bread with a second layer of cheese melted on top ; ელარჯი elarji, cornmeal porridge stretched with cheese; გებჟალია gebzhalia, cheese rolls in a minty yoghurt sauce; spicy kharcho; and red pepper აჯიკა ajika . Sulguni, the stretchy brined cheese eaten all over Georgia, comes from Samegrelo.
Georgian punctuation and the lari sign in Mingrelian text
Mingrelian uses Georgian punctuation. Quotation marks open low and close high, „მარგალური ნინა“, written with „ and “. Full stops, commas, question and exclamation marks look the same as in English. Prices in Georgia are in lari, written with the sign after the amount: 20 .
How to use them
5 situationsClick to copyMingrelian Alphabet & Letters combos
10Worth knowing
- ჲ was dropped from Georgian in the 19th-century spelling reform, but Mingrelian and Svan kept using it, so a letter Georgian schoolchildren never learn is everyday spelling a few hours' drive west of Tbilisi.
- Mingrelian and Laz are close enough to be grouped as the Zan languages, yet most Laz speakers live in Turkey and most Mingrelian speakers in Georgia.
- Every Mingrelian letter, the extras included, has had an official capital form only since Unicode 11.0 in 2018, when the Mtavruli capitals were encoded.
- Mingrelian has its own Wikipedia edition, written in Georgian letters with ჷ and ჸ.
Questions people ask
7What alphabet does Mingrelian use?
The Georgian alphabet, Mkhedruli: the same 33 letters as Georgian, ა to ჰ, plus three extra letters for Mingrelian sounds, ჲ (y), ჷ (ə) and ჸ (the glottal stop). That makes 36.
Is there a Mingrelian alphabet copy and paste?
Yes: the table on this page has all 36 letters with their Mtavruli capitals. Click or tap a letter to copy it, or copy ჲ ჷ ჸ straight from this answer.
Is there a Mingrelian keyboard?
You can type Mingrelian on a standard Georgian keyboard, which has the 33 shared letters, and paste ჲ, ჷ and ჸ. In Word type 10F2, 10F7 or 10F8 and press AltX.
Is Mingrelian the same as Georgian?
No. They are related languages of the Kartvelian family and share an alphabet, but a Georgian speaker cannot simply follow Mingrelian. Its closest relative is Laz.
Is there a Mingrelian Latin alphabet?
There is no single fixed standard. Mingrelian is normally written in Georgian letters; romanizations vary from writer to writer, and ə is the usual way to write ჷ in linguistic work.
How many people speak Mingrelian?
Roughly 540,000 by CLDR's estimate, almost all in western Georgia (Samegrelo) and the Gali district of Abkhazia. Nearly all of them also speak Georgian.
Is it Mingrelian or Megrelian?
Both spellings name the same language and people; Megrelian follows the Georgian form megruli, Mingrelian is the older English form. Speakers call the language margaluri nina.
