International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Eliso Elizbarashvili
Ilia State University, Giorgi Tsereteli Institute of Oriental Studies, Tbilisi, Georgia; 
[e-mail] 
Byzantine – Old-Georgian Documented Dictionary
Beginning from 2015 stuff members of the Department of Byzantine Studies at Acad. G.Tsereteli 
Institute of Oriental Studies, Ilia State University, undertook implementation of the project grant 
entitled “Byzantine – Old-Georgian Documented Dictionary” financed by Shota Rustaveli National 
Science Foundation (Tbilisi, Georgia).
The idea of creating the Byzantine – Old-Georgian Documented Dictionary is connected to 
the names of Academicians Ivane Javakhishvili and Simon Kaukhchishvili. The material for the 
dictionary took many years and several generations of researchers to be completed, but enlargement 
of the existing fund remains one of the top priorities. The dictionary entries with the context are 
selected from the Byzantine-era Greek theological, historical, hagiographical, hymnographical and 
philosophical texts. Their parallel Georgian equivalents are extracted from old Georgian translations 
performed by Georgian theologians and scholars in Byzantine monastic centers: St. Euthymius and 
Giorgi the Athonites, Eprem Mtsire (Ephraim the Lesser), Ioane Petritsi, Arsen Ikaltoeli (Arsen of 
Ikalto), and others. Their erudition, excellent knowledge of the contemporary literary and spoken 
Greek language and direct contacts with the Byzantine world (Athos, Sinai, Black Mount, Jerusalem, 
Antioch, Constantinople, Petritsoni, etc.) render authenticity to the translations. 
The Byzantine – Old-Georgian Documented Dictionary is novelty in Greek as well as in 
Georgian lexicography because of its content and structure. It is based on one million and a half cards 
fund. The fund is preserved at the Department of Byzantine Studies of acad. G.Tsereteli Institute of 
Oriental Studies. Electronic version of the dictionary, which will be published presumably in 2 -3 
volumes after implementation of Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation project Grant, will 
be prepared according to international scientific requirement. The sample guidelines theoretically 
justified by Academician Simon Kaukhchishvili and the vocabulary sections attached to the volumes 
7 and 8 of his ‘Georgica’ (Vol. VII, pp. 3-70 and Vol.8, pp. 271-310). 
Translations performed from Greek by great Georgian scholars in various regions of Byzantine 
help us in etymological research to reveal words borrowed from Greek, establish their origin and 
lexical meaning; To identify the linguistic environment of the translation based upon phonological 
and phonetical characteristics of foreign proper names and transliterated Greek words in Georgian 
alphabet; To determine initial meanings of Greek ecclesiastical-theological and philosophical-
scientific terms established in the Georgian language; To identify and correct words distorted 
by copyists, to rectify texts, etc.; Taking together, the Dictionary will be an unalterable means 
for specialists, textologists and translators working on historical and cultural relations between 
Byzantine and Georgia, as well as for students.
The Greek Georgian Documented Dictionary offers a peculiar approach - the meaning of a word 
is explained, the semantic field of a lexical unit is defined with the corresponding contexts from Old 
Georgian translations of the Byzantine period. This feature makes the documented dictionary unique 
of its kind, an analogue of which is unknown to us. The earliest linguistic data preserved in old Georgian 
translations and original works deserve attention and enlarge the field of research of Byzantinists.

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