Smaller enclaves existed in Abkhazia,[3] but the ongoing civil unrest there has displaced many Mingrelian speakers to other regions of Georgia.

Their geographical distribution is relatively compact, which has helped to promote the transmission of the language between generations.

The oldest surviving texts in Mingrelian date from the 19th century, and are mainly items of ethnographical literature.

The earliest linguistic studies of Mingrelian include a phonetic analysis by Aleksandre Tsagareli (1880), and grammars by Ioseb Kipshidze (1914) and Shalva Beridze (1920).

More recently, there has been some revival of the language, with the publication of a Mingrelian–Georgian dictionary by Otar Kajaia, a Mingrelian-German dictionary by Otar Kajaia and Heinz Fähnrich, and books of poems by Lasha Gakharia, Edem Izoria, Lasha Gvasalia, Guri Otobaia, Giorgi Sichinava, Jumber Kukava, and Vakhtang Kharchilava, journal Skani, Mingrelian Wikipedia, as well as books and magazines published by Jehovah's Witnesses.

The common types are: If the stem contains r then the suffixes -ar and -ur transform to -al and -ul, e.g. xorga (Gaghma Pirveli Khorga [ka], the village)→ xorg-ul-i ("Khorgan").

The rule is not valid if in the stem with r an l appears later, e.g. marṫvili ("Martvili", the town) dj marṫvil-ur-i (adj.