ძველი ბერძნები ბრძენნი იყვნენ

Georgian ძველი ბერძნები ბრძენნი იყვნენ [dzveli berdznebi brdzenni iqvnen] – literally, 'Ancient Greeks wise were' – highlights two almost-identically-sounding words: berdznebi 'Greek (pl.)' and brdzenni 'wise (pl.)'. Ancient Greeks, who in the first millenium B. C. had settled on the shores of the Black Sea, were well-known philosophers and Georgians, who had come into contact with them, had just called them that: '(the) wise' - brdznebi (plural of brdzeni). To differentiate a Greek from 'just any' wise person, Ancient Georgians had unconsciously inserted an [e] sound between the initial [b] and [r] - quite an ingenious procedure indeed, given particularly that both words have gone so far apart that this quasi-obvious connection seldom occurs even to some of the more enlightened minds!