Lesson 9 – ღ, ძ, ჰ

(gh)

This sound does not exist in English: it is the voiced version of ხ (kh). “Voiced” means that the sound is produced by a vibration of the vocal chords. In English, z is voiced and s is not; the difference between them is the same as the difference between ღ and ხ. The sound of ღ is very close to a French r. It is sometimes transcribed as g on road signs, but g and gh are completely different sounds.

(dz)

This letter is pronounced like dz in English. It is considered a single sound in Georgian. Don’t mix it up with ხ (kh): it faces the other direction. To remember which is which, I noticed that ძ is pronounced with a d at the beginning and is the one that looks like a d.

(h)

This letter is pronounced like h in English.

Exercises

Can you guess the meaning of the following words?

Here are some more Georgian words.

Listen Brother
Listen Milk
Day
Uncle
Today
Night
Sleep
Breast
Climate
Sea
Listen Dog
Cow
Listen Air
Bone
Difficult
Expensive
To search
Evening
God
Liver
Spouse
Gum (in the mouth)
Cornflower
Island
Store
A town in Georgia
Greece
East

How do you say “Armenian border”? (Source)