Georgian: spelling → sound

Georgian is written in its own alphabet, Mkhedruli, and the alphabet is honest: every letter is one sound, every sound is one letter, nothing is silent, there are no capitals. Learn 33 shapes and you can read anything aloud. The sounds themselves are the challenge: three series of stops — voiced (ბ დ გ), aspirated (ფ თ ქ, with a puff) and EJECTIVE (პ ტ კ, made with the glottis closed so they pop) — plus a uvular ejective ყ /qʼ/ and a uvular ხ /χ/. Consonant clusters can be fierce (გვფრცქვნი gvprtskvni — 'you peel us'). Stress is weak and usually on the first syllable; the five vowels never reduce.

Trace a word

Every box is one rule firing. Hover a box (or open the table) to see why. Rules are applied in order, first match wins — that order is the spelling system. Type Georgian letters (მადლობა). One letter = one sound, always.

The rules, in order

33 rules. The left column is a pattern (regular expression) matched at the current position of the word; (?=…) looks ahead, (?<=…) looks behind, $ is the end of the word.