Alcune considerazioni sulla situazione attuale della lingua svana
Breve storia degli studi e pianificazione linguistica
abstract
This paper features the current situation of the Svan-speaking linguistic communities in Georgia, the Georgian language policies and the attempts made to make Svan a literary language. In 2013, Richard Bærug published Svan Youth Literature, a book containing short stories written by young Svans; this and other recent publications seem to bear witness to the vitality of this endangered language. Anyway, language policy in Georgia still looks far from accepting the Kartvelian languages different from Georgian as separate languages, although other minority languages are earning evident privileges. Recent studies have shed light on some of these problems, which however take on greater meaning when viewed from the diachronic perspective hereby presented.
Keywords: Language policy • Language planning • Georgia • Minorities • Kartvelian • Svan • Caucasus