When learning Georgian, I was amazed with that rare quality (called "transparent orthography" as I now realized). The alphabet is entirely different from English or Russian. But once you know the letters and how they sound, you can properly pronounce any written word and spell almost anything you hear. Another surprise is that Georgian words don't have any "canonical" stress as far as I understand. The stress is fluid and may depend on the context, e.g. shifted to the end of the word in a question sentence. I mean, each word may have some kind of customary stress, but you won't find anything even close to the Russian "Словарь ударений" here. Haven't spent much time in Georgia to notice any links between those observations and how Georgians think. But I guess I will keep an eye on that!
Great essay!
When learning Georgian, I was amazed with that rare quality (called "transparent orthography" as I now realized). The alphabet is entirely different from English or Russian. But once you know the letters and how they sound, you can properly pronounce any written word and spell almost anything you hear. Another surprise is that Georgian words don't have any "canonical" stress as far as I understand. The stress is fluid and may depend on the context, e.g. shifted to the end of the word in a question sentence. I mean, each word may have some kind of customary stress, but you won't find anything even close to the Russian "Словарь ударений" here. Haven't spent much time in Georgia to notice any links between those observations and how Georgians think. But I guess I will keep an eye on that!