Signagi or Sighnaghi ( Georgian : სიღნაღი ) is a town in Georgia 's easternmost region of Kakheti and the administrative center of the Signagi Municipality . Although it is one of Georgia's smallest towns, Signagi serves as a popular tourist destination due to its location at the heart of Georgia's wine -growing regions, as well as its picturesque landscapes, pastel houses and narrow, cobblestone streets. Located on a steep hill, Signagi overlooks the vast Alazani Valley, with the Caucasus Mountains visible at a distance.
31-520: The name of the town comes from Old Turkic word of syghynak ( Turkish : sığınak , Azerbaijani : sığınacaq ), meaning "shelter" or "asylum". Signagi is located in the Kakheti region of Georgia, first settled in the Paleolithic period. Throughout its history, Signagi or Sighnaghi was known to the local population as Kambechovani, and later as Kisikhi or Kisiki. The word Sighnaghi in
62-592: A considerable number of archaic Old Turkic words despite forming a language island within Central Iran and being heavily influenced by Persian . Old Uyghur is not a direct ancestor of the modern Uyghur language , but rather the Western Yugur language ; the contemporaneous ancestor of Modern Uyghur was the Chagatai literary language . East Old Turkic is attested in a number of scripts, including
93-704: A few Armenian schools, including Surb Sahakyan School, Yerkser School, Lianozyan School, Surb Gevorg Co-ed School, Marinski School, Kaghakayin Yerkdasya School, and the Armenian Women's Sewing School. In 1903, across Signagi region, there were 498 Armenians attending school. There was an Armenian theatre group as well during this period. There were a number of Armenian churches in Sgnagi which no longer function as Armenian churches. The town has an area of 2.978 ha with 24.3% being residential. Signagi
124-518: A few Armenian schools, including Surb Sahakyan School, Yerkser School, Lianozyan School, Surb Gevorg Co-ed School, Marinski School, Kaghakayin Yerkdasya School, and the Armenian Women's Sewing School. In 1903, across Signagi region, there were 498 Armenians attending school. There was an Armenian theatre group as well during this period. There were a number of Armenian churches in Sgnagi which no longer function as Armenian churches. The town has an area of 2.978 ha with 24.3% being residential. Signagi
155-614: A nasal in a word such as 𐰢𐰤 ( men , "I"). There are approximately 12 case morphemes in Old Turkic (treating 3 types of accusatives as one); the table below lists Old Turkic cases following Marcel Erdal ’s classification (some phonemes of suffixes written in capital letters denote archiphonemes which sometimes are dropped or changed as per (East) Old Turkic phonotactics ): Old Turkic (like Modern Turkic) had 2 grammatical numbers: singular and plural. However, Old Turkic also formed collective nouns (a category related to plurals) by
186-443: A separate suffix -(A)gU(n) e.g. tay agun uŋuz ‘your colts’. Unlike Modern Turkic, Old Turkic had 3 types of suffixes to denote plural: Suffixes except for -lAr is limitedly used for only a few words. In some descriptions, -(X)t and -An may also be treated as collective markers. -(X)t is used for titles of non-Turkic origin, e.g. tarxat ← tarxan 'free man' <Soghdian, tégit ← tégin 'prince' (of unknown origin). -s
217-542: Is a town in Georgia 's easternmost region of Kakheti and the administrative center of the Signagi Municipality . Although it is one of Georgia's smallest towns, Signagi serves as a popular tourist destination due to its location at the heart of Georgia's wine -growing regions, as well as its picturesque landscapes, pastel houses and narrow, cobblestone streets. Located on a steep hill, Signagi overlooks
248-444: Is a similar suffix, e.g. ïšbara-s 'lords' <Sanskrit īśvara . -An is used for person, e.g. ärän 'men, warriors' ← är 'man', oglan ← ogul 'son'. Today, all Modern Turkic languages (except for Chuvash ) use exclusively the suffix of the -lAr type for plural. Finite verb forms in Old Turkic (i.e. verbs to which a tense suffix is added) always conjugate for person and number of the subject by corresponding suffixes save for
279-598: Is approximately 113 km southeast of Tbilisi , the capital of Georgia. Signagi District is adjacent, on the town’s east and southwest sides. Signagi is situated in the eastern foothills of the Gombori Range , a watershed between the Iori and Alazani valleys, in a productive agricultural and fruit-growing region. At an elevation of about 790 m above sea level, the town overlooks the Alazani Valley and faces
310-422: Is approximately 113 km southeast of Tbilisi , the capital of Georgia. Signagi District is adjacent, on the town’s east and southwest sides. Signagi is situated in the eastern foothills of the Gombori Range , a watershed between the Iori and Alazani valleys, in a productive agricultural and fruit-growing region. At an elevation of about 790 m above sea level, the town overlooks the Alazani Valley and faces
341-632: Is distinctive for all vowels; while most of its daughter languages have lost the distinction, many of these preserve it in the case of /e/ with a height distinction, where the long phoneme developed into a more closed vowel than the short counterpart. Old Turkic is highly restrictive in which consonants words can begin with: words can begin with /b/, /t/, /tʃ/, /k/, /q/, /s/, /ɫ/ and /j/, but they do not usually begin with /p/, /d/, /g/, /ɢ/, /l/, /ɾ/, /n/, /ɲ/, /ŋ/, /m/, /ʃ/, or /z/. The only exceptions are 𐰤𐰀 ( ne , "what, which") and its derivatives, and some early assimilations of word-initial /b/ to /m/ preceding
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#1732765535069372-708: The Greater Caucasus mountains. Signagi has a mild Mediterranean-like climate. There are four seasons, with winters being moderately cold while summers can be hot. The highest average temperature is in July at 24.3°C while the lowest average temperature is in January at 0.2°C. Average annual precipitation ranges from 602.1 to 949.7 mm , with the heaviest occurring during the spring months and early summer. Signagi and its environs are home to several historical and cultural monuments and have been specifically protected by
403-535: The Greater Caucasus mountains. Signagi has a mild Mediterranean-like climate. There are four seasons, with winters being moderately cold while summers can be hot. The highest average temperature is in July at 24.3°C while the lowest average temperature is in January at 0.2°C. Average annual precipitation ranges from 602.1 to 949.7 mm , with the heaviest occurring during the spring months and early summer. Signagi and its environs are home to several historical and cultural monuments and have been specifically protected by
434-641: The Old Hungarian alphabet of the 10th century. Words were usually written from right to left. Variants of the script were found in Mongolia and Xinjiang in the east and the Balkans in the west. The preserved inscriptions were dated between the 8th and 10th centuries. Vowel roundness is assimilated through the word through vowel harmony . Some vowels were considered to occur only in the initial syllable, but they were later found to be in suffixes. Length
465-700: The Old Turkic script , the Old Uyghur alphabet , the Brahmi script , and the Manichaean script . The Turkic runiform alphabet of Orkhon Turkic was deciphered by Vilhelm Thomsen in 1893. The Old Turkic script (also known variously as Göktürk script, Orkhon script, Orkhon-Yenisey script) is the alphabet used by the Göktürks and other early Turkic khanates during the 8th to 10th centuries to record
496-722: The Soviet Union . The severe economic crisis in post-Soviet Georgia heavily affected the town, but a major reconstruction project recently launched by the Government of Georgia and co-funded by several international organizations intends to both address an increasing tourist interest and modernize infrastructure. Armenians once formed the vast majority of the population of Signagi. In 1851, there were 4,267 Armenians and 200 Georgians. By 1916, that majority had narrowed closer to 50-50, with 8,968 Armenians, 8,470 Georgians, and 224 people of other nationalities. In Signagi there were
527-602: The Soviet Union . The severe economic crisis in post-Soviet Georgia heavily affected the town, but a major reconstruction project recently launched by the Government of Georgia and co-funded by several international organizations intends to both address an increasing tourist interest and modernize infrastructure. Armenians once formed the vast majority of the population of Signagi. In 1851, there were 4,267 Armenians and 200 Georgians. By 1916, that majority had narrowed closer to 50-50, with 8,968 Armenians, 8,470 Georgians, and 224 people of other nationalities. In Signagi there were
558-565: The Turkic language means shelter or trench. Signagi as a settlement was first recorded in the early 18th century. In 1762, King Heraclius II of Georgia sponsored the construction of the town and erected a fortress to defend the area from marauding attacks by Dagestani tribesmen. According to the 1770 census, 100 families, chiefly craftsmen and merchants, lived in Signagi. When Georgia was annexed by Imperial Russia in 1801, Signagi (Signakh)
589-458: The Turkic language means shelter or trench. Signagi as a settlement was first recorded in the early 18th century. In 1762, King Heraclius II of Georgia sponsored the construction of the town and erected a fortress to defend the area from marauding attacks by Dagestani tribesmen. According to the 1770 census, 100 families, chiefly craftsmen and merchants, lived in Signagi. When Georgia was annexed by Imperial Russia in 1801, Signagi (Signakh)
620-532: The 1950s was upgraded and developed into a modern-standard exhibition the – Signagi Museum – in 2007. Signagi is known as the "City of Love" in Georgia, with many couples visiting it just to get married. [REDACTED] Signagi travel guide from Wikivoyage Old Turkic language Old Siberian Turkic , generally known as East Old Turkic and often shortened to Old Turkic , was a Siberian Turkic language spoken around East Turkistan and Mongolia . It
651-408: The 3rd person, in which case person suffix is absent. This grammatical configuration is preserved in the majority of Modern Turkic languages, except for some such as Yellow Uyghur in which verbs no longer agree with the person of the subject. Old Turkic had a complex system of tenses, which could be divided into six simple and derived tenses, the latter formed by adding special (auxiliary) verbs to
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#1732765535069682-659: The Old Turkic language. The script is named after the Orkhon Valley in Mongolia where early 8th-century inscriptions were discovered in an 1889 expedition by Nikolai Yadrintsev . This writing system was later used within the Uyghur Khaganate . Additionally, a Yenisei variant is known from 9th-century Yenisei Kirghiz inscriptions, and it has likely cousins in the Talas Valley of Turkestan and
713-528: The Old Turkic proper, though West Old Turkic is generally unattested and is mostly reconstructed through words loaned through Hungarian . East Old Turkic is the oldest attested member of the Siberian Turkic branch of Turkic languages, and several of its now-archaic grammatical as well as lexical features are extant in the modern Yellow Uyghur , Lop Nur Uyghur and Khalaj (all of which are endangered); Khalaj, for instance, has (surprisingly) retained
744-505: The State since 1975. The town is walled with the remnants of 18th-century fortifications. There are two Georgian Orthodox churches in the town itself - one dedicated to St. George and the other to St. Stephen . The venerated Bodbe Monastery is located 2 kilometers from Signagi and is a place of pilgrimage due to its association with St. Nino , the 4th-century apostle of Georgia. The local Ethnographic and Archaeological Museum dating from
775-453: The State since 1975. The town is walled with the remnants of 18th-century fortifications. There are two Georgian Orthodox churches in the town itself - one dedicated to St. George and the other to St. Stephen . The venerated Bodbe Monastery is located 2 kilometers from Signagi and is a place of pilgrimage due to its association with St. Nino , the 4th-century apostle of Georgia. The local Ethnographic and Archaeological Museum dating from
806-501: The later Old Uyghur . There is a difference of opinion among linguists with regard to the Karakhanid language , some (among whom include Omeljan Pritsak , Sergey Malov , Osman Karatay and Marcel Erdal ) classify it as another dialect of East Old Turkic, while others prefer to include Karakhanid among Middle Turkic languages; nonetheless, Karakhanid is very close to Old Uyghur. East Old Turkic and West Old Turkic together comprise
837-464: The simple tenses. Some suffixes are attested as being attached to only one word and no other instance of attachment is to be found. Similarly, some words are attested only once in the entire extant Old Turkic corpus. The following have been classified by Gerard Clauson as denominal noun suffixes. The following have been classified by Gerard Clauson as deverbal suffixes. Signagi#Q946143 Signagi or Sighnaghi ( Georgian : სიღნაღი )
868-558: The vast Alazani Valley, with the Caucasus Mountains visible at a distance. The name of the town comes from Old Turkic word of syghynak ( Turkish : sığınak , Azerbaijani : sığınacaq ), meaning "shelter" or "asylum". Signagi is located in the Kakheti region of Georgia, first settled in the Paleolithic period. Throughout its history, Signagi or Sighnaghi was known to the local population as Kambechovani, and later as Kisikhi or Kisiki. The word Sighnaghi in
899-557: Was first discovered in inscriptions originating from the Second Turkic Khaganate , and later the Uyghur Khaganate , making it the earliest attested Common Turkic language . In terms of the datability of extant written sources, the period of Old Turkic can be dated from slightly before 720 AD to the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. Old Turkic can generally be split into two dialects, the earlier Orkhon Turkic and
930-585: Was officially granted town status and became a center of the Signakh uezd within the Tiflis Governorate in 1802. In 1812, Signakh joined the rebellion with the rest of Kakheti against Russian rule. During the Caucasian War , the town "was considered an important point on account of its proximity to" Dagestan. The town quickly grew in size and population and became an agricultural center in
961-400: Was officially granted town status and became a center of the Signakh uezd within the Tiflis Governorate in 1802. In 1812, Signakh joined the rebellion with the rest of Kakheti against Russian rule. During the Caucasian War , the town "was considered an important point on account of its proximity to" Dagestan. The town quickly grew in size and population and became an agricultural center in