Linguistics and Literature Studies Vol. 5(5), pp. 323 - 332
DOI: 10.13189/lls.2017.050501
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"Dark Ages" in Comparative Studies and Ethnogenesis of Georgians in the Framework of the History of Comparative Studies

Tsira Baramidze ^*
Institute of Caucasiology, Tbilisi State University, Georgia

ABSTRACT

The paper discusses the history of the issue of the ethnogenesis of Georgians. The comparative method of linguistics is universal and applicable to any language family. Like the methods of natural sciences the method is exact and verifiable. At some stages of contemporary linguistics, a crisis arose not because a method has some drawbacks, but because the method was considered to be useless to prove extralinguistic hypotheses by some linguists. As far as such extra-linguistic hypotheses cannot be proven by the comparative method, their authors tend to purposefully discredit comparative studies: I. They devalue the strictness of the method - language families are deliberately grouped into phyla; for instance, Noetic, Nostratic, Boreic, Dene-Caucasian... Hence, members of the Iberian-Caucasian family appeared in different phyla: Kartvelian languages - in Nostratic, Abkhaz-Adyghe and Daghestanian ones - in Dene-Caucasian. II. They ignore the method, linguistic items are qualified as languages and dialects by means of non-immanent marking. III. The comparative method is considered to be a non-universal one for the Iberian-Caucasian languages. IV. They consider the method to be unilateral, it was assumed that the method explained diverging process, however, it could not explain outcomes of convergence. V. The strength and credibility of sound correspondences was questioned; on the other hand, the establishment of secondary sound correspondences was considered possible. By way of a priori acknowledging the above-said, the allogenetic hypothesis was posited to be parallel with the theory of linguistic affinity. The paper analyzes the stages, having preceded the final proving of the Iberian-Caucasian affinity: it presents the research outcomes of the empirical data of the Iberian-Caucasian languages, the hologram principle of the reflection (resp. occurrence) of synchronic sound correspondences in diachrony, theoretical postulates determining the present-day level of the comparative study of the Iberian-Caucasian languages, research achievements and challenges. The detection of regular sound correspondences in the establishment of language affinity is one and not the only objective of comparative studies. Another significant objective of comparative studies is the representation of the temporal-spatial model of the divergence of a parent-language of a family, the establishment of absolute chronology of the existence of a parent-language, the compilation of comparative phetics and grammars, etymological dictionaries, the localization of the homeland of the parent-language-speaking ethnic group, and the reconstruction of proto-culture. Attempts to establish "Dark Ages" in comparative studies periodically occur at various times with various data and make 'obstacles' to linguistics. The paper provides answers to the challenges in the framework of the comparative method. The ethnogenesis of Georgians is determined with respect to its belonging to the Iberian-Caucasian family.

KEYWORDS
Kartvelian Languages, Ethnogenesis, Comparative Linguistics, Sound Correspondences, Kinship, "Dark Ages"

Cite This Paper in IEEE or APA Citation Styles
(a). IEEE Format:
[1] Tsira Baramidze , ""Dark Ages" in Comparative Studies and Ethnogenesis of Georgians in the Framework of the History of Comparative Studies," Linguistics and Literature Studies, Vol. 5, No. 5, pp. 323 - 332, 2017. DOI: 10.13189/lls.2017.050501.

(b). APA Format:
Tsira Baramidze (2017). "Dark Ages" in Comparative Studies and Ethnogenesis of Georgians in the Framework of the History of Comparative Studies. Linguistics and Literature Studies, 5(5), 323 - 332. DOI: 10.13189/lls.2017.050501.