Book excerpt: At long last, with Professor Fähnrich’s Georgische Sprache here is a systematic description of the structure of the Georgian language. The book is divided into two parts, one for Old and the other for Modern Georgian. A separate section treats the main differences between the two. Illustrated by a wealth of examples, an overview is given of characteristic features, the stages of development, phonetics, morphonology, morphology (word formation, formation of grammatical forms), syntax and aspects of the Georgian vocabulary. The introduction presents readers with general information on the language, its history, importance, position among, and relationship with other Caucasian languages, dialects and written traditions.