Georgian Translation

Georgian is one of the few writing systems in the world with no capital letters. That has an unexpected consequence for document translation: proper nouns cannot be picked out of the text by their form.

4 min readLast updated 2 September 2026

Writing system

ნოტარიულად დამოწმებული თარგმანი

notariulad damowmebuli targmani

A notarised translation

The Mkhedruli alphabet has 33 letters and no distinction between upper and lower case; a letter at the start of a sentence looks exactly like one in the middle. Letters do not join, each standing separately. The alphabet resembles neither Latin, Cyrillic nor Arabic and has an origin of its own.

What the absence of capitals changes

In Turkish we know a word is a proper noun from its initial capital. Georgian offers no such cue: a personal name, an institution name and an ordinary noun are written the same way. The reader has to infer from context what is a proper noun.

The concrete consequence in translation is this: an institution name appearing plainly in Georgian has to be judged, when carried into another language, as either a proper noun or a descriptive phrase. Judging wrongly invents an institution that does not exist. That is why we also show institution names in their original form.

Surname endings indicate regional origin

The ending of a Georgian surname shows the region a family comes from. This is of no direct use in translation, but it matters for understanding that the surname is whole: the ending is inseparable and cannot be shortened.

Common surname endings
Ending	Meaning	Region	Example
-შვილი (-shvili)	Child of	Eastern Georgia	Saakashvili
-ძე (-dze)	Son of	Western Georgia	Shevardnadze
-იანი (-iani)	Belonging to	Svaneti	Dadeshkeliani
-ური (-uri)	Of a region	Mountain regions	Chinchaladze
-ავა (-ava)	—	Mingrelia	Kvirikashvili

Common surname endings

No Turkish rendering of these endings is written; the surname is carried across as it stands. Translating Saakashvili as "child of Saaka" destroys the surname. The meaning of the ending is noted only where someone asks.

Transliteration: consonant clusters

Georgian has consonant clusters unfamiliar to Turkish, and carrying them into Latin script can be done in more than one way. The language also distinguishes sounds that are close but separate: aspirated and ejective k, t and p are written with different letters, and the Latin alphabet renders both with one.

Different spellings of the same name
Georgian	Common in passports	In Turkish spelling
გიორგი	GIORGI	Giorgi
თამარ	TAMAR	Tamar
ნინო	NINO	Nino
ხატია	KHATIA	Hatia
ზურაბ	ZURAB	Zurab
ცოტნე	TSOTNE	Tsotne

Different spellings of the same name

The Turkish column is closer to the pronunciation but is not used on official documents. Institutions match on the passport spelling; a Turkish reading can be added only as a translator's note.

letters in the Mkhedruli alphabet: 33letters in the Mkhedruli alphabet
capital letters: 0capital letters
language family, unrelated to its neighbours: Kartvelianlanguage family, unrelated to its neighbours

Bilingual Soviet-era documents

Georgian documents issued before 1991 are often bilingual, carrying the same information in Georgian and Russian. That looks like an advantage for translation, but small differences can exist between the two texts, particularly in the spelling of names.

01
The two texts are compared
The Georgian and Russian sections are read side by side. Any difference in name spelling is stated in the translation.
02
Which text governs
The language of the issuing authority governs; on a document issued in Georgia, the Georgian text is the original.
03
Place names are given twice
Changed place names are preserved and today's equivalent noted in brackets.
04
The apostille comes from Georgia
Where the document was issued within today's Georgian borders, the apostille comes from the Georgian authorities; Russia has no competence.

Georgian documents and how we render them

Frequently seen documents
Document	What it is	Our approach
დაბადების მოწმობა	Birth certificate	Its scope differs from a Turkish civil registry extract
პირადობის მოწმობა	Identity card	The personal number field is stated separately
ცნობა ნასამართლობის შესახებ	Criminal record certificate	Its validity period is highlighted
დიპლომი	Diploma	The supplement is a separate document and should be requested with it
ამონაწერი	Extract from a state register	Which register it came from is stated

Frequently seen documents

Frequently asked questions

Can a translator who knows Russian handle my Georgian document?

No. Georgian belongs to the Kartvelian family and is unrelated to Russian, and its alphabet is entirely separate. If the document is bilingual the Russian section can be read, but the Georgian text is the original and requires a translator with a Georgian oath record.

Is an apostille enough for a document going to Georgia?

Yes. Georgia is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so sworn translation, notarisation and an apostille are valid; consular legalisation is not required.

Can you use the Turkish reading of my name?

Not on an official document; the latinised passport spelling governs. Because Georgian has sounds with no Latin counterpart, a Turkish reading and a passport spelling can diverge noticeably. We can add the reading as a translator's note if you want it.

My document has no capital letters. How will you tell the proper nouns apart?

From context. Institution names, place names and personal names are identified by their position in the sentence and by set formulas. Where we cannot be sure, we show the original Georgian spelling and add a translator's note: making the uncertainty visible is the right approach, not inventing an answer.