Linguistic Circle Meeting

Title:  The Arabic Element in Georgian
Speaker:  Professor Guram Chikovani  (Tbilisi Institute of Asia and Africa, Georgia)
Date:  Tuesday, 11th April 2000
Time:  18:00
Venue:  Room 118, Lecture Centre (off Car Park 2)

Georgian is the national language of the Caucasian Republic of Georgia.  Together with Zan and Svan, it belongs to the South Caucasian branch of the Caucasian family of languages.

Through part of its history, Georgian was exposed to the influence of Arabic, via Ottoman Turkish dominance in the region. This is of particular interest to the Maltese situation, where Maltese as an Arabic dialect was exposed to non-Semitic influences, via Romance languages and later English.

The Speaker

 Professor Guram Chikovani is the founder and current Rector of the Tbilisi Institute of Asia and Africa. The Institute's three Faculties offer programmes of study in a wide range of Asian and African languages, in conjunction with international relations and the history of the area concerned. Professor Chikovani started his academic career with research on the varieties of Arabic to be found in the Central Asian Republics.