Drawing on the linguistic-anthropological literature on language-in-music and the ethnomusicological and cultural studies literature on communication in world music, in this article I explore the dialectics of sameness and difference as they play out at the interstices of the Georgian language and transnationally oriented Georgian “world music.” My study draws on seven years of ethnographic engagement with musicians and audiences in Georgia proper and among Georgian migrants in New York City. My findings suggest that language in world music can and should be interrogated further as a key forum for the exploration of dynamic, non-referential, non-conventional forms of intercultural communication and meaning-making.
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