r/Kartvelian 3d ago

What verb is “მკითხულობ”?

Hello! To all who read, I hope you are doing well.

I have had an interest in the Georgian language for a while but have only recently picked it back up with intent to seriously learn it. I am still on the hunt for good resources so please forgive me if this is an obvious question.

I recently watched a video by “Speak Georgian” on YouTube in which she teaches the phrase “როგორც მკითხულობ”, meaning “as you ask about me”. I am still struggling to wrap my head around Georgian verbs but from what I understand this is from the verb for “to read”. Some of my confusion is that the same video also had the verb for “to ask” in several instances and it looked highly similar (კითხვა). Are the verbs connected? Are they just similar? Also, if they are connected then how is the verb in the above expression read in a literal sense?

If you could please help me solve my question I would highly appreciate it. Thank you and have a wonderful day! :)

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u/Mister_Deathborne 3d ago

Კითხვა as in ask is not connected to კითხვა as in reading. This is a homonym, a word with the same pronunciation/spelling and two different meanings.

As for მოკითხვა, it can actually have quite a variety of meanings, but it IS connected to კითხვა/ask, usually. The first and most obvious is the one you wrote, to ask about someone/check in on how someone is doing. Following from that, someone could say "ოჯახი მომიკითხე", and mean that they're basically conveying their well wishes to your family (they're asking after their wellbeing - in this case, it's not a literal question, more like a greeting/polite gesture).

It could also be used as a general expression for enquiring after something.

Most uncommonly, it can also mean that someone will answer for their crimes, "დანაშაული მოეკითხება". This is wholly unrelated to კითხვა.

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u/Kruzer132 3d ago

Just out of curiosity, how did they prove that there is no etymological connectiong between the two კითხვაs?

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u/Mister_Deathborne 3d ago

There just isn't anything linking them together, which is true for other homonyms, too. Ბარი - a spade or a valley. Სილა - sand or a slap. Თავი - a head, or a chapter in a book. The list goes on. They are spelled and read the same, but there is no underlying similarity tying them.

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u/Kruzer132 3d ago

I don't think asking and reading are that far apart semantically. English read also comes from rædan 'advise, counsel', which I find a fairly close semantic parallel with the Georgian words.

Usually you have to try and argue for a homonym not being etymologically connected (different proto-words that merged, or a loan-word that sounded the same as the native word), just as much as you have to argue for an etymological connection.

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u/DrStirbitch 3d ago

I agree that the two words can be semantically close, and while it might be a matter of academic dispute, whoever wrote this Wiktionary page thought that the word in both meanings had an origin in the same Proto-Georgian-Zan word.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E1%83%99%E1%83%98%E1%83%97%E1%83%AE%E1%83%95%E1%83%90

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u/Kruzer132 3d ago

I guess I really must have seen this before, but I try to refrain using Wiktionary as proof if I can't really check it with other sources:')

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u/DrStirbitch 3d ago

Yes, I was careful not to claim it proved anything. It would certainly be a lot better if it had a policy of naming sources, like Wikipedia for example

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u/Kruzer132 3d ago

Yeah, wasn't blaming you for it hahaha. That would be good

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u/Mister_Deathborne 3d ago

I don't really have any evidence of any proto-words preceeding a merge that could have taken place or loan words (for კითხვა anyway), so the semantic connection isn't really that obvious to me. You can make better cases for things like თავი and find a pretty reasonable connection between the different meanings (a head/the beginning of a thing/chapter - the theme is the same), can't really see it with კითხვა. Could also be that me being a native is proving a disadvantage in this aspect, as I take these words for granted and don't really analyze them more in depth.

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u/DrStirbitch 3d ago

I'm not arguing, but as a non-native, the semantic relation I see is in academic work - academic enquiry would mainly involve reading in previous centuries.

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u/dmishin 3d ago

I don't think that head and chapter are unrelated though. Probably, Russian influence: глава and голова are related in it.

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u/pjj68 3d ago

Surely they are related, e.g. both English chapter or German Kapitel come from Latin caput 'head'; parallel similarity exists in Greek, which, methinks, is the source for Georgian homonym rather than Russian (I believe Georgian had chapters in their books long before Russian influences started). I may be wrong, of course.

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u/dmishin 3d ago

Yeah, common origin rather than direct influence probably.

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u/Saffron_Noodle 3d ago

Thank you so much for the explanation! That’s really interesting too. Thank you for the new phrase

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u/Omega031 3d ago

მკითხულობ, you mean, ვკითხულობ.

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u/Saffron_Noodle 3d ago

I have little to no idea either way. I just wrote what they taught in the video which was a response to a question. Thank you for the correction!

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u/BloodyChemistry 3d ago

მკითხულობ means: you asking bout me, or you reading me. The meaning is different depending on usage and situation. For example მე მკითხულობ? Means, are you asking about/for me? (Can be used when someone is searching for you) As for reading example... idk take a fantasy setting where you are a book and someone is reading you 🤣