French → Georgian
Georgian uses 33 sounds. You already own 16 of them from French. The other 17 are the work — and 10 of those are the dangerous kind: close enough to something you already say that you will substitute them without hearing yourself do it.
The silent swaps
Your mouth has something close enough to reach for. These survive for years precisely because they sound right to you — the fix is hearing the difference first, not trying harder.
the move: aspirated
Georgian: money · written "ფ"
Aspirated — a puff of air, like English p in 'pin'.
Your /p/ is the one in pain (bread).
the move: aspirated
Georgian: fish · written "თ"
Aspirated.
Your /t/ is the one in table (table).
the move: aspirated
Georgian: woman · written "ქ"
Aspirated. ქართული /kʰartʰuli/ = Georgian.
Your /k/ is the one in quand (when).
the move: uvular → velar
Georgian: wine · written "ღ"
Voiced — like a French r but further forward; the partner of ხ.
Your /ʁ/ is the one in rue (street).
the move: plosive → affricate
Georgian: dog · written "ძ"
Your /d/ is the one in deux (two).
the move: fricative → affricate
Georgian: army · written "ჯ"
Your /ʒ/ is the one in jour (day).
the move: ejective
Georgian: bread · written "პ"
Ejective — no air from the lungs; close the glottis and pop.
Your /p/ is the one in pain (bread).
the move: ejective
Georgian: lake · written "ტ"
Ejective.
Your /t/ is the one in table (table).
the move: ejective
Georgian: man · written "კ"
Ejective.
Your /k/ is the one in quand (when).
Words you may say identically
Two or more Georgian sounds landing on one sound of yours. Until the ear separates them, the mouth cannot — which is what the ear trainer is for.
Genuinely new
Nothing in French sits close to these. They sound foreign in your mouth — which is the good news: you can hear that you are not saying them yet.
air
Closest thing you own: — but labiodental → glottal.
coffee
Uvular ejective — made far back, a throaty pop. The hardest sound for learners; ბაყაყი 'frog' is the tongue-twister.
Closest thing you own: — but velar → uvular, ejective.
sky
Aspirated.
Closest thing you own: — but plosive → affricate, aspirated.
tea
Aspirated.
Closest thing you own: — but fricative → affricate, aspirated.
milk
Trilled or tapped.
Closest thing you own: — but plosive → trill.
water
Ejective. წყალი opens with two ejectives in a row.
Closest thing you own: — but plosive → affricate, ejective.
glass (drinking)
Ejective.
Closest thing you own: — but fricative → affricate, ejective.
Rhythm and pitch
The layer spelling never records, and the one that makes a correct sentence still sound foreign.
| French | Georgian | |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm | Syllable-timed | Syllable-timed, heavy clusters |
| Stress | This is the one that surprises everyone: French words have NO fixed stress. Prominence lands on the last syllable of the rhythmic GROUP, not of the word — so the same word is stressed differently depending on where it sits. 'Un chocolat' stresses -lat; 'un chocolat chaud' moves it to chaud and the word chocolat loses it entirely. There are no French minimal pairs by stress, because there is nothing to contrast. | Weak and non-contrastive. Two-syllable words take it on the first syllable; longer words tend toward the third-from-last. No pair of Georgian words is distinguished by stress alone, which is why dictionaries do not mark it. To an English ear Georgian can sound evenly stressed, almost flat — that is correct, not a lack of expression. |
What you have that Georgian doesn't
20 sounds with no job in Georgian. They are not mistakes — but they are where an accent leaks in, because a sound you own is easy to use when a hard one is due.
The honest caveat
This is a prediction from the shape of two sound systems, not a recording of you. It says what your inventory makes likely — it cannot know that your French has a regional variety that already owns one of these, or that you learned Georgian from someone whose accent you copied. A teacher listening to you beats it. Use it to know what to listen for.
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