Georgian Speech Etiquette and Translation Problems

Abstract

The article considers some specific features of the Georgian speech etiquette: official and familiar addressing, politeness (courtesy) forms of verbs, verbs alternating in person, some units of phatic speech. Special attention is paid to the problems occurring in the process of translation of the units of speech etiquette in fiction. As reference material a small abstract from the Georgian ancient poem ―Vepkhistqaosani‖ (―The Knight in the Panther‘s Skin‖) is discussed using the examples from its Russian, English and German translations; necessity of knowing and considering the specific character of the politeness system for translation is underlined.