What language family includes Georgian, Svan, and Mingrelian?

The language family that includes Georgian, Svan, and Mingrelian is Kartvelian. Also called South Caucasian or Kartvelic, it is indigenous mainly to Georgia and surrounding parts of the South Caucasus.

Kartvelian comprises four principal languages: Georgian, Svan, Mingrelian, and Laz. Georgian is by far the most widely spoken and is the family’s only major literary language. Svan is spoken chiefly in the mountainous Svaneti region, while Mingrelian is concentrated in western Georgia. Laz is spoken mainly along the Black Sea coast of northeastern Turkey and in parts of Georgia.

These languages share inherited features but are not simply dialects of Georgian. Svan diverged early, and Mingrelian and Laz form the Zan branch. Georgian uses its own distinctive script, which is also used for the other Kartvelian languages when they are written.

“Northwest Caucasian” is a separate language family, not a synonym for Kartvelian. Although Kartvelian languages are geographically Caucasian, no generally accepted genetic relationship connects them to Northwest or Northeast Caucasian families.