Georgian (ქართულიენა) is the native language of the Georgians and the official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus. It is the literary language for all regional subgroups of the Georgian ethnos, including those who speak other Kartvelian (South Caucasian) languages: Svans, Mingrelians, and the Laz. Georgian, is spoken by an additional 60,000 in Israel.
The Bible was first translated into the Georgian language as early as the 5th century. The Vani Gospels (Vani Four Gospels; Georgian: ვანის ოთხთავი, Vanis otkhtavi) is an illuminated manuscript of the gospels in the Georgian Nuskhuri script dating from the end of the 12thearly 13th centuries. Recently a new translation was completed by the Institute for Bible Translation.
