The Kartvelian Languages in Theodor Yankovich de Mirievo’s Dictionary

Abstract

The present paper is a discussion of Theodor Yankovich de Mirievo’s A Dcomparative Dictionary of All Languages and
Dialects Arranged in Alphabetical Order (four volumes) published in Saint Petersburg in 1790-1791. The dictionary includes
more than 60,000 lexical specimina from 272 languages and dialects, thus considerably prevailing over P. . Pallas’s dictionary
(1787; 1789), its immediate predecessor and source. However, as my investigation has demonstrated, in terms of the
representativeness (based on both quantitative and qualitative data) of the Kartvelian languages (Georgian, Megrelian, Svan), no
differences have been attested between them. Th. Yankovich de Mirievo’s dictionary is of only a historical significance with
respect to the history of studies and documentation of the Kartvelian languages.