Georgian: ქევინს ანგარიში აქვს "ქართულ ბანკში

[winenous]

The dialogue of lesson 8 in Beginner's Georgian has the introductory sentence:
ქევინს ანგარიში აქვს "ქართულ ბანკში"
which supposedly translates as Kevin has an account at the Georgian Bank.

But to me it looks like the subject of the sentence is Kevin's account, and the sentence has no direct object. Can someone please explain what I am missing? Later in the dialogue there is a similar sentence that works more as I would expect, with account seemingly being the direct object:
შენც ამ ბანკში გაქვს ანგარიში?

 

[AndrasBP]

I don't think I know more Georgian than you do, but maybe I can help with this sentence because both Hungarian and Russian, my two native languages use similar structures to express possession (also Latvian and Celtic languages).

Instead of "I have" + an object, the literal translation would be "at me / to me / on me" + "there is" + a noun (in the nominative case).

As far as I understand, "ქევინს ანგარიში" does not mean "Kevin's account", which would be "ქევინის ანგარიში".
"ქევინს" is in the "dative/accusative" case, which is used with the verb აქვს and the other personal forms მაქვს, გაქვს, etc.
The sentence could be understood as:

ქევინს = "at Kevin", "in Kevin's possession"
ანგარიში = "an account"
აქვს = "there is", "exists"
ქართულ ბანკში = "at the Georgian Bank"

შენც ამ ბანკში გაქვს ანგარიში?

Take a look at the conjugation chart on page 284.

In the "dative/accusative" case, the personal pronouns მე, შენ, ჩვენ, თქვენ remain the same, but the 3rd person pronouns ის and ისინი change to მას and მათ.

I hope this helps.

 

[winenous]

It does help, thank you. I totally failed to spot that ქევინს was not genitive. I did think that probably აქვს somehow translated as exists, but could not see that translation in the places I looked. So you are saying that ანგარიში is the subject in both sentences, and შენ is dative/accusative in the second sentence, like ქევინს in the first. Is that right?

The final mystery for me is that the verb აქვს/გაქვს seems to conjugate according to the dative/accusative noun or pronoun, rather than the subject. But I seem to remember reading something about that, even if I have not found and read a full explanation yet.

I think that feature of Georgian was also the source of some of my earlier confusion about the informal and polite forms of thank you გმადლობ and გმადლობთ - the გ- and -თ indicate who is being thanked, not the thanker.

Thank you again for your help with the various Georgian questions I have posted here.

 

[AndrasBP]

So you are saying that ანგარიში is the subject in both sentences, and შენ is dative/accusative in the second sentence, like ქევინს in the first. Is that right?

Yes, that's right.

The final mystery for me is that the verb აქვს/გაქვს seems to conjugate according to the dative/accusative noun or pronoun, rather than the subject.

The Georgian verbal system is definitely a challenge.
Extreme suppletion doesn't help learners either:
"For example, in Georgian, the paradigm for the verb "to come" is composed of four different roots (di-, -val-, -vid-, and -sul-). "

 

[Ruzanna]

Kevin has an account.
This is the correct translation that you have provided and it has the subject and direct object too.
Just in Georgian it is reversed: Kevin account has, which sounds correct in Georgian and is a normal structure along with Kevin has an account. Both sound good in Georgian.

By the way, can you tell me what book is it or a link to that book? I would appreciate it.

 

[winenous]

Thank you Ruzanna. The book is Beginner's Georgian by Dodona Kiziria, Hippocrene Books.

It is not without faults, but seems to be the best available for starting to learn Georgian.

 

[Ruzanna]

Thanks.