I antologin “Vi såg sammanbrottet” berättar en grupp svenska och danska forskare om sina erfarenheter från resor, studiebesök och fältarbete i Kaukasusområdet under Sovjetväldets sista decennium och sammanbrott. Kaukasus var, liksom Baltikum, ett utkantsområde i Sovjet­unionen, men just dessa två skulle få stor betydelse i den reformprocess som Gorbatjov påbörjade 1985 och som sex år senare resulterade i sovjetstatens upplösning.

I sina bidrag berättar författarna om de nya självständighetsrörelserna i Kaukasus och ökade spänningar med Moskva, om hur de sovjetiska strukturerna på olika nivåer bröts ned och nationella kulturer fick ökad betydelse. De skildrar hur förmoderna traditioner fortfarande spelar roll trots sovjetisk modernisering, beskriver kulturella särdrag och likheter och iakttar även fördjupade etniska motsättningar. Artiklarna är baserade på material insamlat under resor och fältarbeten i både södra och norra Kaukasus.

Medverkande är statsvetaren Ib Faurby, kulturgeografen Lars Funch Hansen, minoritets­forskaren Helen Krag, slavisten  Märta-Lisa Magnusson, historikern och iranologen Søren Theisen och lingvisten Karina Vamling.

Boken finns även att köpa i tryck här.

In the anthology “We witnessed the break-up” a group of Swedish and Danish researchers recount their experiences in the Caucasus region during the final years of the Soviet Union and the period shortly after. The Caucasus, like the Baltic region, was on the outskirts of the Soviet Union, but these two regions were to play an important role in the reform process that Gorbachev initiated in 1985 and that six years later led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

In their contributions the authors write about the new movements for independence in the Caucasus and increasing tensions with Moscow, how the Soviet structures at different levels were breaking down and the national cultures became increasingly important. They describe how premodern traditions still play a role, despite Soviet modernization, account for specific cultural features and similarities and also witness deepening ethnic antagonism.

The authors are political scientist Ib Faurby, cultural geographer Lars Funch Hansen, researcher on minority issues Helen Krag, slavicist Märta-Lisa Magnusson, historian and Iranologist Søren Theisen and general linguist Karina Vamling.

The book can also be purchased in print here.

Georgiska: Grammatisk översikt med texter och ordlista

Karina Vamling
Revaz Tchantouria

The publication is an overview (in Swedish) of Georgian grammar with texts, reference tables and Georgian/Swedish wordlists. It also includes audio files and exercises. All Georgian texts and examples are given in Georgian script with parallel Latin transliteration.

The material was originally written in 1988 for the first Georgian course at Lund University and later became the basis for the online Georgian course “Georgian I” currently offered at Malmö University. The book is published in connection with the 20 years anniversary of the online course 2001-2021.

NOTE: To read the book and listen to the embedded audio files you need an epub3 reader, such as Adobe Digital Editions 4.5 (available for free at: https://www.adobe.com/se/solutions/ebook/digital-editions/download.html) 

ISBN 978-91-7877-215-5

ISBN: 978-91-7877-160-8

Table of contents:
Introduction 7
Complementation in the Northwest Caucasian Languages 11
Mukhadin Kumakhov and Karina Vamling
Complementation in the Kartvelian Languages 45
Karina Vamling and Revaz Tchantouria
Index 80

ISBN: 978-91-7104-973-5

The volume includes papers presented at the multidisciplinary conference Caucasus Studies: Migration – Society – Language, held on November 28-30 2008 at Malmö University, shortly after the dramatic events of the Georgian-Russian war. Researchers on the Caucasus from a variety of disciplinary perspectives gathered around the themes: Armed conflicts and conflict resolution, The Caucasus and global politics, Identities in transition, Migration and identity, Language contact and migration, and Diaspora studies. Papers from this broad spectrum of topics are represented in the volume. The languages of the conference were English and Russian, and the volume therefore includes papers in both these languages. The organizing of this international conference and the presence of a large number of participants from Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and North Caucasus would not have been possible without the generous support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).

The conference brings together researchers in Caucasus studies for a discussion on current developments in the region. How are these dynamics to be understood and explained from political, anthropological, historical, linguistic and cultural perspectives?

Papers are organized into thematic sections, such as Armed conflicts and migration, Migration and maintenance of cultural identities, Language contact and migration, Transitional identities, Caucasian diasporas, Caucasus in regional and global politics. We welcome multidiciplinary papers and also encourage presentations of research in progress. The program includes possibilities for poster presentations.

The conference is organized by Caucasus Studies at the Department of International Migration and Ethnic Relations (IMER), Malmö University, Sweden, in cooporation with the Center for Caucasus Studies at Øresund University. The conference is supported by Sida (Swedish International Development Agency).

The international conference Language, History and Cultural Identities in the Caucasus, 17-20 June 2005, hosted by the School of International Migration and Ethnic Relations (IMER) at Malmö University (Sweden), brought together Caucasian and Western schoolars with diverse disciplinary backgrounds – social anthropology, linguistics, literature, social psychology, political science – who focus on the Caucasus in their research. The present volume is based on papers from this conference.

The monograph is a study of clause structure in the closely related Circassian languages, Adyghe and Kabardian, two minority languages spoken in North Caucasus.