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The screeve

2011/02/13 12:45

From Howard I. Aronson’s Georgian: A Reading Grammar:



Guinness reaches Tbilisi
Originally uploaded by viralbus

A final term must be introduced here, the screeve (coined by the Georgian linguist Ak ̣ak ̣i Šanije from the Georgian word mc ̣k ̣rivi ‘row’). A screeve is what is traditionally called a tense, i.e., a set of six forms of a given verb differing only in person and number, as in Latin amo, amas, amat, amamus, amatis, amant. But since the various “tenses” do not always have temporal meaning, but may have modal or aspectual meanings instead, we prefer the more unusual but less misleading term of screeves.

Ever since I studied Georgian, I’ve continued using the word screeve instead of tense mentally, although of course I have to translate it when I’m speaking to non-Kartvelists. I really wish its use would increase.

Der er dog et problem med, hvordan man skal oversætte det til dansk. Et skriv lyder ikke så godt. :-(

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