Svan is a Kartvelian language spoken in Georgia by the Svan people. It is also spoken in the Republic of Abkhazia, a territory that considers itself independent but is largely regarded as part of Georgia. Though Svan, Megrelian, and Laz, members of the Kartvelian family along with Georgian, are sometimes considered to be dialects or variants of the Georgian language, they are recognized by the Georgian government as separate languages. All the Kartvelian languages started as one, and Svan was the first to separate as its own language. At the moment, the Svan language is considered to have around 40,000 speakers, but it is possible that there are very few speakers left since documentation is poor and many speakers have shifted to the Georgian language over time. In addition, many Svan people were forced to relocate to areas near the Georgian border due to the destruction of many traditional villages from natural disasters. Svan is not taught in school and does not have a standardized writing system, but it is commonly written using the Georgian, Cyryllic, or Latin alphabet.