1

Real Life Stories of a Soldier in the

Seven Years War (off Helsingborg)

Struggling with a difficult language is a constant

skirmishing, and the battle metaphor, although humorous,
is not entirely foolish. In this article I hope it is obvious
that I pay handsome tribute to the excellent online
Georgian course at Malmo University from which I derive
great benefit, and the joke is intended entirely against
myself... Study is often a private and painful matter, and
one not open to scrutiny. I think examining how the mind
works is often as interesting as presenting the results;
and in this way I hope that teaching and thinking about
teaching can make some progress. Rilke, I think had the
last word, with his exhortation to be constantly a
beginner. In this way I hope that learning from mistakes
as well as making them becomes more valued in teaching
and language teaching generally. Because from mistakes
we advance.
shen mtkhov dakhmarebas
you me-give help
ara

M wrong

2
"

you, me-ask [for] help "

*
kitkhva

= to ask

Dict examples:
erti kilo pamidori mtkhova
[dictionary ...adapted ...which had a real
Italian-for-you word, ghirvanka = "libbra"
may I ask you a question
sheidzleba

shegekhitqvot ?

BUT
Case 2
tkhovena, stkhovs

which gives

I asked him to come

stkhove, movides
[this is our exercise verb in question!]
Case 3
miPaTidjeba
(now it begins to look a a bit
like Middle Manichean Ossettic!)
sadilad

[dinnerly]

davPadidje
'He asked [him/her ? ] to dinner'
so we have
to ask as in ask a question
to ask as in request something

to ask as in invite to some event

so MMM (the Malmo Magic Maelstrom;

or course virtual author:
(1) has introduced crucial stucture
when we were off-guard

which could be good !

but (2) did not explain what mtkhov

might have meant before we were
en voie

Of course a Berlitzian teacher might take just

this approach!

but (3) MMM gave us no context for the

"type of asking"
(just plunged us in!)
and (4) did not situate this in the
wider field of
what must be
100s 1000s of similar examples
which are very obviously
the DNA, the backbone, the key signature itself
of Georgian

O Thou Most Perfidious MMM !

2 me gtkhov dakhmarebas
shen mtkhov dakhmarebas
you request-of-me help

this must mean

I request-of-you-singular, help
now
isini mtkhoven dakhmarebas !
ahhhaha!

abecadabra!
they request -of-me, HELP !
Now, swimming out a bit further into the
Icy Baltic, MMM plays Pawn to KR8 ....
me vtkhov MAT dakhmarebas !
ha !
thing here, just as you remember the
spelling of Liszt by the consonants being
in alphabetic order, so too Georgian
obligingly gives us mas and mat in
mathematical to alphabetic relation:
thus -s is he she it ? while -t is they/them
So: 'I

request

of-them

help '

me gtkhovt dakhmarebas ! must mean

I of them request help!
*

And now next....I see and remember a great

and important catch!
"There was no dog in the night"
MMM made examples 2 and 5
the same!
Now we check:
No 2 is me gtkhov dakhmarebas
and I translated this as:
I ask you sing for help
We check...
We magically click!
We risk getting marked down by the machine!
It is only a machine!
We do not care!
We are in SEARCH of TRUTH !
a-ha-ha-ha!

this shows we were correct.

Now, in the MMM spirit, we play....

And we are faulted on a technicality!

C l e a r l y:
"I ask you for help"
is going to be said ACROSS A SOCIAL BRIDGE
it is formal speech
it is not tu-toi-ing speech
In going back to the screen I forgot all guile
(because my aim is to understand, not pass...)
I honestly allowed my instinct to guide me!
I was right, really!
My translation is correct!

(The intimate form might be: "I am asking you for

help"
[MMM must pay 10,000 ancient ghirvanka in
Danegeld!]
Deep sigh !

As well as which - this is not the only translation.

It does not necessarily imply [all]
Because it can be a formal usage.
It can be:
Addressing a group, whether or not formally, as
here.

Or: formally addressing a single person

Or: formally addressing a group
Or: informally addressing a group.
*
OK - so now to continue:

"
isini mtkhoven dakhmarebas !
ahhhaha!

abecadabra!
they request -of-me, HELP !

And finally:

"

"

10

me gtkhovt dakhmarebas ! must mean

I of them request help!

"

11

So in advancing, I have been severely wounded in the Pankisi Gorge and not even
advanced
as far as yesterday. I return to camp. In the next campaign, we see :
M Smith (Georgia) versus MMM (Sweden) on Board 5, M Smith with
White , Round 9. I elect to play Swedenborg's Attack!

12

In conclusion, some epic images recalling the greatness of

both the Georgian and the Scandinavian cultures...and our
continued debt to them today....

A Viking Longship...resource and courage in an earlier epoch

Emmanuel Swedenborg (scientist, philosopher, visionary and theologian)

during one of Swedens greatest periods of intellectual greatness...

13

Icon of the Three Hundred Aragvelians, who died in 1795 trying to defend
Tbilisi from the Persians