Kaldani, M. M. Phonetics of the Svan Language. I. The Umlaut System in Svan (Fonetika svanskogo yazyka. I. Sistema umlauta v svanskom), 1968. In Russian

Калдани М. М. Фонетика сванского языка. I. Система умлаута в сванском. / Автореферат диссертации на соискание учёной степени доктора филологических наук.
Тбилиси : Мецниереба, Академия наук Грузинской ССР, Институт языкознания, 1968.
54 с. Мягкая издательская обложка, обычный формат (22 см). Тираж 250 экз.
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Kaldani, M. M. Phonetics of the Svan Language. I. The Umlaut System in Svan (Fonetika svanskogo yazyka. I. Sistema umlauta v svanskom). / Abstract of the dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philological Sciences.
Tbilisi : Metsniereba, Academy of Sciences of the Georgian SSR, Institute of Linguistics, 1968.
54 pp. Softcover, standard format (22 cm). Print run: 250 copies.

This 1968 doctoral abstract represents a specialized and significant contribution to Caucasian linguistics, focusing on the most archaic and complex member of the Kartvelian language family: Svan. Produced at the Institute of Linguistics in Tbilisi under the auspices of the Georgian Academy of Sciences, this work by Maksim Kaldani is a rigorous investigation into the idiosyncratic phonetic processes that distinguish Svan from its sister languages like Georgian or Megrelian.
The primary focus of this study is the Svan umlaut system, a unique feature among Kartvelian languages where the quality of a stem vowel is altered by the influence of a vowel in the following syllable. Kaldani systematically analyzes this phenomenon across the four main Svan dialects (Upper Bal, Lower Bal, Lashkh, and Lentekh). He explores how these vowel shifts are not merely phonetic relics but fundamental components of the language's phonological structure, affecting both the nominal and verbal systems.
Because Svan was never a written language in the modern sense, its preservation of ancient features makes it a "living laboratory" for historical linguistics. Kaldani's research provides critical data for the reconstruction of Proto-Kartvelian vowel systems. With a minuscule print run of only 250 copies, this abstract was intended for a narrow circle of specialists and is now an exceptional bibliographical rarity. It is an essential primary source for Armenologists, Kartvelologists, and scholars of general phonology interested in the mechanics of vowel harmony and mutation.