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The Georgian alphabet is the script currently used to write the Georgian Language and other Kartvelian languages (such as Mingrelian ), and occasionally other languages of the Caucasus (such as Ossetic in the 1940s ). The modern alphabet has thirty-three letters. Originally it had more, but some letters (lavender cells in the tables below) have become obsolete. The Georgian script makes no distinction between upper and lower case. However, certain modern writers have experimented with using ''Asomtavruli'' letters (see below) as capitals. HISTORY OF THE ALPHABET The oldest uncontroversial examples of Georgian writing are an ''asomtavruli'' inscription in a church in Bethlehem from 430 CE. Gamkrelidze 1990 (''Alphabetic Writing and the Old Georgian script'') argues that it must have followed the advent of Christianity in Georgia (''c.'' 337 CE), and that the forms of the letters are freely invented in imitation of the Greek model. However, many of the letter forms are similar to contemporary Sassanian Persian and Sogdian scripts, while the left-to-right writing direction and the order of the alphabet are Greek . Georgian historical tradition attributes the invention of the Georgian alphabet to Parnavaz I Of Iberia in the 3rd century BC. Older Armenian sources attribute the alphabet to Saint Mesrop Mashtots , who is credited with the invention of the Armenian Alphabet as well, but Georgian scholars tend to refute this claim seeking a uniquely Georgian source instead. There are other interpretations. One of the more contentious is that the ''asomtavruli'' alphabet was invented in 412 BC by Georgian priests of the cult of ''Matra'' ( Persian Mithra ), and reformed in 284 BC by king Parnavaz I Of Iberia . The Asomtavruli alphabet is known also as ''Mrgvlovani'' ("rounded"). Examples of it are still preserved in monumental inscriptions, such as those of the Georgian church in . The ''Nuskhuri'' ("minuscule") or ''Kutkhovani'' ("squared") script first appeared in the ninth century. Asomtavruli and Nuskhuri , collectively known as ''Khutsuri'' (ხუცური, or "church script"), were used together to write religious manuscripts, with the Asomtavruli serving as capital letters. The modern alphabet, called ''Mkhedruli'' (მხედრული, "secular" or "military writing"), first appeared in the eleventh century. It was used for non-religious purposes up until the eighteenth century, when it completely replaced Khutsuri. Georgian linguists claim that the Orthography is Phonemic . SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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