vprtskvni (was Re: average syllables per word?)

FFlores wrote:

> > >(Speaking of consonant clusters... my favorite Georgian word
> > >is _vprtskvni_ 'I am peeling it', which is supposed to be
> > >one syllable. I don't know which part is 'peel', but I'm quite
> > >sure it's not the vowel.)
> > >
> >         How is it supposed to be pronounced? With a lot of schwas or with a
> > consonnant cluster of 8 consonnants?
>
> My grammar says "one syllable per vowel". So it *is* a consonant cluster
> (v-p-r-ts-k-v-n, seven consonants, since /ts/ is affricate). And it also
> says "almost no assimilation"! Wow.
>
        Last night, I asked my neighbor, who is from Georgia, how one
would say
"I am peeling it". The response I got was /me  vprtskni/.  (/me/ = I ).
I made it very clear that the form I wanted was "I am peeling  _it_",
I still got /me vprtskni/.
        Assuming, for the moment, this form, it sounds to _my_ ears as:
/v/ (almost imperceptible; the lower lip does go toward the upper teeth
before
      meeting the upper lip for /p/, and there is voicing, but it is so
weak as
       to be almost unheard);
/prts/ stronger than /v/ , but unstressed;
/kni/ carries the stress.
No schwas. The one vowel is the /i/ at the end.
According to my neighbor, the root word "to peel" is "vprtskni"

        As to the form,  my neighbor didn't understand any word such as
"vprtskvni".  According to your grammars what exactly is the person,
tense, etc. of this
form?
Perhaps the /v/ in /kvni/ is an infix signifying "it". If so, could this
form be
literary Georgian, as opposed to the "street Georgian"  that my neighbor
speaks?
    If so, there could be an analogue in Hebrew grammar: to say "I am
peeling it"
one would say /ani mkalef oto/  (ani = I, mkalef =  am peeling,  oto =
it (masculine) ).

However, in a more literary style, Hebrew cuts off the "ot-" from "it"
and
suffixes the remaining vowel ("o") to the verb: /ani mkalefo/ (or
/mkalefa/ if the
word for "it" was "ota" (feminine). However, you'd never hear this form
on the street.
Someone who was not literate in Hebrew and only spoke the street version
of it
might not know the shortened form.

      ( BTW, could you provide me with the name of your grammar? I've
been wanting
to teach myself Georgian for years, and although I've searched all over,
I haven't
found any grammars for the language!)

Dan Sulani

--
 likehsna  rtem  zuv  tikuhnuh  auag  inuvuz  vaka'a.

 A  word  is  an  awesome  thing.