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Svan (ლუშნუ ნინ/შკა̈ნ)
Svan is a South Caucasian language spoken by about 30,000 people in in the northwest of Georgia. There are also several thousand Svan speakers in the republic of Abkhazia.

Svan has no official status in Georgia and there is no standard written form. When it is written, a version of the Georgian alphabet is usually used, though the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets are also used occasionally.

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Familial features
Like all languages of the South Caucasian family, Svan has a large number of consonants. It has agreement between subject and object, and a split-ergative morphosyntactic system. Verbs are marked for aspect, evidentiality and "version".

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Distinguishing features
Svan retains the consonant /q/ (voiceless aspirated stop), and the glides /w/ and /y/. It has a larger repertoire of vowels than Georgian; the Upper Bal dialect of Svan has the most vowels of any South Caucasian language, showing both long and short versions of /a e i o u д ц ь ə/, a total of 18 vowels (Georgian, by contrast, has just five).

Its morphology is less regular than that of the other three sister languages, and there are notable differences in verbal inflections.

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Explanation of terms
The Svan language is spoken by 34 500 speakers (1967). The self-designation is ლუშნუ ნინ lušnu nin, Georgian სვანური ენა svanuri ena, Russ. сванский язык.

Area of distribution
The Svan language is spoken in the high mountains of Svanetia, i.e. in the districts of Mestia and Lentekh of the Georgia.

Dialect varieties

The Svan language is divided into 4 dialects:
1. Upper Bal (Ushgul უშგულური, Kal კალუღი, Ipar იფარული, Mulakh მულახური, Mesṭia მესტიური, Lenǯer ლენჯერული and Laṭal ლატალური subdialects);
2. Lower Bal ( Bečo ბეჩოური, Cxumar ცხუმარული, Ecer ეცერული, Par ფარული, Čubekh ჩუბეხეური and Laxam ლახამულური subdialects);
3. Lashkh;
4. Lentekh (Xeled ხელედური, Xopur ხოფურული, Rcxmelur რცხმელურული and Čolur ჩოლურული subdialects).

The consonant system of Svan

The vowel system of Svan: Svan (Upper Bal)
Svan (Lower Bal)
Svan (Lashkh)
Svan (Lentekh)

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Svan (Upper Bal)3 front central back
plain round nas. phar. plain nas. phar. plain nas. phar.
high long ī
ი̄ ǖ
უ̈̄ ə̄
̄ ū
უ̄
short i
ი ü
უ̈ ə
 u
უ
mid long ē
ე̄ ȫ
ო̈̄ ō
ო̄
short e
ე ö
ო̈ o
ო
low long ǟ
ა̈̄ ā
ა̄
short ä
ა̈ a
ა

Svan (Lashkh) front central back
plain round nas. phar. plain nas. phar. plain nas. phar.
high long ī
ი̄ ə̄
̄ ū
უ̄
short i
ი ə
 u
უ
mid long ē
ე̄ ō
ო̄
short e
ე o
ო
low long ā
ა̄
short a
ა

Svan (Lower Bal) front central back
plain round nas. phar. plain nas. phar. plain nas. phar.
high long
short i
ი ü
უ̈ ə
 u
უ
mid long
short e
ე ö
ო̈ o
ო
low long
short ä
ა̈ a
ა

Svan (Lentekh) front central back
plain round nas. phar. plain nas. phar. plain nas. phar.
high long
short i
ი ə
 u
უ
mid long
short e
ე o
ო
low long
short ä
ა̈ a
ა