On December 16 the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (TSU) hosted the event dedicated to the 80th anniversary of a famous Kartvelologist, Professor Guram Kartozia. TSU Rector, Academician Vladimer Papava, Guram Kartozia’s family members and relatives, TSU professors and students attended the event.
TSU Rector, Vladimer Papava said that “the university does not forget and shows respect to those famous people, who made their contribution to the university’s life. The exhibition arranged at TSU presents the photos depicting Guram Kartozia’s life and activity, his manuscripts and books. It is important that Guram Kartozia’s students are continuing his work successfully.”
“The exhibition presents photos from private archives, manuscripts, books depicting Kartozia’s life. I am glad that a tradition has been restored at the university to show respect for those persons, who played an important role in the development of TSU,” Kartozia’s son, Alexander Kartozia said.
On the sideline of the event, an exhibition dedicated to Professor Guram Kartozia was held at the TSU Museum. The exposition displayed Kartozia’s photos, awards, personal belongings, letters, his books in various fields of Kartvelology – in phonetics-phonology of Kartvelian languages, grammar and lexicology, Rustvelology and textology, oral tradition and lexicography; also manuscripts of minutes of the commission for the establishment of an academic text of The Knight in the Panther’s Skin by Shota Rustaveli (in 2011-2012 these manuscripts were published in a form of a book, editor: Academician Tamaz Gamkrelidze); expedition records made by Guram Kartozia in the 1940s-50s in Kakheti, Svaneti, Samegrelo and Chaneti, as well as the Laz of Turkey; a part of these records have yet to be published. At the end of the event a solemn evening was held, where a special edition of journal Kartvelologist (editor Academician Magali Todua) was presented.
The following works by Prof. Guram Kartozia have largely determined the level of Kartvelology development: Textological Research (2004); Laz Language and Its Place in the System of Kartvelian Languages (2005), which has been translated into German by a famous Kartvelologist, Heinz Fähnrich; and Linguistic Analysis of Mingrelian Language (2010), on which he worked together with his students in frames of a scientific project.
