მცხეთა

Georgian

Etymology

Subject of dispute. Many Georgian linguists have derived it from მესხი (mesxi) (name of an ancient Kartvelian tribe). However, Guram Bedoshvili associated it with მჴცე (mqce, “old, wise man”). According to Klimov (1964), possibly from Proto-Georgian-Zan *ʒ₁ixe- (“fortress”) (whence also Georgian ციხე (cixe) and Mingrelian ჯიხა (ǯixa)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mt͡sxetʰa/, [mt͡sʰχetʰa]
• Hyphenation: მცხე‧თა

• Audio:

  (file)

Proper noun

მცხეთა • (mcxeta)

1. Mtskheta (a city in Georgia)

Inflection

Declension of მცხეთა (see Georgian declension)
	singular	plural	archaic plural
nominative	მცხეთა (mcxeta)
ergative	მცხეთამ (mcxetam)
dative	მცხეთას(ა) (mcxetas(a))
genitive	მცხეთის(ა) (mcxetis(a))
instrumental	მცხეთით(ა) (mcxetit(a))
adverbial	მცხეთად(ა) (mcxetad(a))
vocative	მცხეთავ (mcxetav)
Notes: archaic plurals might not exist.

Postpositional inflection of მცხეთა (see Georgian postpositions)
postpositions taking a dative case	singular	plural
-ზე (-ze, “on”)	მცხეთაზე (mcxetaze)
-თან (-tan, “near”)	მცხეთასთან (mcxetastan)
-ში (-ši, “in”)	მცხეთაში (mcxetaši)
-ვით (-vit, “like”)	მცხეთასავით (mcxetasavit)
postpositions taking a genitive case	singular	plural
-თვის (-tvis, “for”)	მცხეთისთვის (mcxetistvis)
-ებრ (-ebr, “like”)	მცხეთისებრ (mcxetisebr)
-კენ (-ḳen, “towards”)	მცხეთისკენ (mcxetisḳen)
-გან (-gan, “from/of”)	მცხეთისგან (mcxetisgan)
postpositions taking an instrumental case	singular	plural
-დან (-dan, “from/since”)	მცხეთიდან (mcxetidan)
-ურთ (-urt, “together with”)	მცხეთითურთ (mcxetiturt)
postpositions taking an adverbial case	singular	plural
-მდე (-mde, “up to”)	მცხეთამდე (mcxetamde)

References

• Bedošvili, Guram (2002) Kartul ṭoṗonimta ganmarṭebit-eṭimologiuri leksiḳoni [Dictionary of Georgian Geographical Names]‎^[1] (in Georgian), Tbilisi: Bakur Sulakauri Publishing, →ISBN
• Klimov, G. A. (1964) Этимологический словарь картвельских языков [Etymological Dictionary of the Kartvelian Languages] (in Russian), Moscow: Academy Press, page 239