Lesson 4 – თ, ქ, ფ

Before going further, we need to talk about phonetics, more precisely about aspiration. Put your hand in front of your mouth and say “pin”, and then say “spin”. The p in “pin” is followed by a puff of air, as if the p was followed by a h, but the p in “spin” is not. This phenomenon is called aspiration (if you want to know more, see Wikipedia). The distinction is not important in English, but it is in Georgian. The three letters we are going to learn in this lesson represent aspirated sounds, that is sounds followed by a puff of air.

(t)

This is an aspirated t.

(k)

This is an aspirated k.

(p)

This is an aspirated p. The f sound does not exist in Georgian, so when transcribing a foreign word with an f, ფ is used instead.

Exercises

You can now decipher the names of some cities and regions in Georgia.

Listen
Listen

Here are some more Georgian words. Hint: many country names end in -ეთი.

There
Stone
Ten
Mountain
King
One
Money
Gold
Listen Hour
You (plural)
Six
A city in Europe
White
Snow
Plants
Animals
Listen City
Moon
A queen of Georgia
A country
A country in Europe
A country
A city in Asia
A country in Asia
Georgian
World
Pharmacy
A country in Europe
Georgia’s most famous poet
A country in Asia
Free
The oldest Georgian alphabet
Bird

What village does this road sign indicate? (Source)

What is the name of this metro station? (Source)