Learning Georgian
Where does the Georgian alphabet come from?
The short answer
Georgian has its own script, unrelated to any other alphabet in use today. Its oldest form, Asomtavruli, appears in inscriptions from the 5th century AD. Today’s letters, Mkhedruli, developed from it: they first appear in the 10th century and gradually became the everyday script. In 2016 UNESCO listed the three Georgian scripts as intangible cultural heritage.
Three scripts
Asomtavruli (“capital letters”), the oldest, used in stone inscriptions and early manuscripts. Nuskhuri, a smaller church script from around the 9th century. And Mkhedruli (“of the horseman”), the one used for everything today. Asomtavruli still appears in church settings and as decoration.
Who created it
Georgian tradition credits King Parnavaz, around the 3rd century BC. Most historians link it instead to the spread of Christianity in Georgia in the 4th and 5th centuries, when it was needed to write down scripture. Either way, it’s one of only a handful of scripts in the world made for a single language.
Capital letters, sort of
Mkhedruli has no capitals, but Mtavruli, an all-capitals style of the same letters, is used in headlines, logos and on some signs. It reads the same: each letter keeps its sound.
Words to hear
Checked October 2026.