Laz language

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Laz language

The Laz language (?????? ????, lazuri nena; , lazuri ena, or ?????? ???, chanuri ena) is spoken by the Laz people

Laz people

The Laz are an ethnic group who live primarily on the Black Sea coastal regions of Turkey and Georgia . One of the chief tribes of ancient kingdom of Colchis, the Laz were initially Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church, most of whom converted to Sunni Islam during Ottoman rule of Caucasus in the 16th century....
on the Southeast shore of the Black Sea

Black Sea

The Black Sea is an inland sea sea bounded by southeastern Europe, the Caucasus and the Anatolia and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean Sea and Aegean Seas and various straits....
. It is estimated that there are between around 30,000 native speakers of Laz in Turkey

Turkey

Lazistan

Lazistan was the Ottoman Empire administrative name for the sanjak comprising the Laz people or Laz language-speaking population on the southeastern shore of the Black Sea....
until 1925), and about 2,000 in Georgia

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a transcontinental country in the Caucasus region, located at the dividing line between Europe and Asia. It is bordered by the Russia to the north, Azerbaijan to the east, Armenia to the south, and Turkey to the southwest....
.

is one of the four South Caucasian languages

South Caucasian languages

The South Caucasian languages are spoken primarily in Georgia , with smaller groups of speakers in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia and Israel....
.

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Encyclopedia

The Laz language (?????? ????, lazuri nena; , lazuri ena, or ?????? ???, chanuri ena) is spoken by the Laz people

Laz people

Black Sea

Turkey

Lazistan

Georgia (country)

Linguistic classification

Laz is one of the four South Caucasian languages

South Caucasian languages

The South Caucasian languages are spoken primarily in Georgia , with smaller groups of speakers in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia and Israel....
. Along with Mingrelian, it forms the Zan branch of this language family. The two tongues are very closely related, to the extent that they were officially considered to be dialects of a single language called Zan in the Soviet era (a view that is still held in Georgia today). In general, however, Laz and Mingrelian are classed as separate tongues, due both to the long-standing separation of their communities of speakers (500 years) and to a lack of mutual intelligibility. Some linguists refer to Mingrelian and Laz as regional variants of a single Zan language
Zan language

The Zan language, or Zanuri, is a conventional term used by some linguisticss to describe the unity of Mingrelian language and Laz language, which are the closest members of the South Caucasian languages language family....
.

Dialects

Laz has five major dialects:

Xopuri, spoken in Hopa
Hopa

Hopa is a district of Artvin Province of Turkey, from the city of Artvin, at the eastern end of Turkey's Black Sea coast, on the border with Georgia ....
and Ajaria;
Vitzur-Ark'abuli, spoken in Arhavi
Arhavi

Arhavi is a town and district of Artvin Province in the mountains above the Black Sea coast in the east of Turkey....
and Findikli
Findikli

Findikli is a town and district of Rize Province on the Black Sea coast of Turkey, east of the city of Rize....
;
Çxala, spoken in Düzköy (Çxala) village in Borçka
Borçka

Bor?ka is a town and district of Artvin Province in the Black Sea Region, Turkey region of Turkey, on the border with Georgia .Bor?ka is reached by a winding road up from the Black Sea coast, alongside the ?oruh River....
;
Atinuri, spoken in Pazar
Pazar

Pazar is a town and district of Rize Province in the Black Sea Region, Turkey region of Turkey, 37 km east of the city of Rize.Etymology...
(former Atina);
Art'asenuri, spoken in Ardesen
Ardesen

Ardesen is a town and district of Rize Province in the Black Sea Region, Turkey region of Turkey, 48km along the coast road from the city of Rize....
.

The last two are often treated as a single Atinan dialect. Speakers of different Laz dialects have trouble understanding each other, and often prefer to communicate in the local official language.

Laz Dialects

English	Atina	Art'aseni	Arkabi	Xopa - Batumi
I love	malimben	maoropen	p’orom	p’qorop
You love	galimben	gaoropen	orom	qorop
S/he-It loves	alimben	aropen	oroms	qorops
We love	malimberan	maoropenan	p’oromt	p’qorot
You love	galimberan	gaoropenan	oromt	qoropt
They love	alimberan	aoropenan	oroman	qoropan

Geographical distribution

The ancient kingdom of Colchis

Colchis

In ancient geography, Colchis or Kolkhis was an ancient Georgia , state monarchy and region in the Western Georgia , which played an important role in the ethnic and cultural formation of the Georgians and its subgroups....
was located in the same region the Laz speakers are found in today, and its inhabitants probably spoke an ancestral version of the language. Colchis was the setting for the famous Greek legend

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
of Jason and the Argonauts

Jason and the Argonauts

Jason and the Argonauts may refer to:* Jason#The_quest_for_the_Golden_Fleece, a Greek myth which features Jason and the Argonauts, a group of heroes...
.

Today most Laz speakers live in Northeast Turkey, in a strip of land along the shore of the Black Sea: in the Pazar

Pazar

Pazar is a town and district of Rize Province in the Black Sea Region, Turkey region of Turkey, 37 km east of the city of Rize.Etymology...
(Atina), Ardesen

Ardesen

Ardesen is a town and district of Rize Province in the Black Sea Region, Turkey region of Turkey, 48km along the coast road from the city of Rize....
(Art'aseni), Çamlihemsin

Çamlihemsin

?amlihemsin is a small town and district of Rize Province in the Black Sea Region, Turkey region of Turkey.With its mountains and valleys in all shades of green ?amlihemsin has a reputation as one of the most attractive parts of the eastern Black Sea region, particularly with the autumn foliage....
(Vijadibi) and Findikli

Findikli

Findikli is a town and district of Rize Province on the Black Sea coast of Turkey, east of the city of Rize....
(Vitze) districts of Rize

Rize

Rize is the capital of Rize Province, in northeast Turkey, on the Black Sea coast....
, and in the Arhavi

Arhavi

Arhavi is a town and district of Artvin Province in the mountains above the Black Sea coast in the east of Turkey....
(Ark'abi), Hopa

Hopa

Hopa is a district of Artvin Province of Turkey, from the city of Artvin, at the eastern end of Turkey's Black Sea coast, on the border with Georgia ....
(Xopa) and Borçka

Borçka

Bor?ka is a town and district of Artvin Province in the Black Sea Region, Turkey region of Turkey, on the border with Georgia .Bor?ka is reached by a winding road up from the Black Sea coast, alongside the ?oruh River....
districts of Artvin

Artvin

Artvin is a List of cities in Turkey in northeastern Turkey on the ?oruh River near the Georgia n border.This article is about the city of Artvin....
. There are also communities in northwestern Anatolia

Anatolia

Anatolia or Asia Minor is a region of Western Asia, comprising most of the modern Republic of Turkey. It is a geographic region bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Caucasus to the northeast, the Aegean Sea to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Iranian plateau to the east and southeast....
(Akçakoca

Akçakoca

Ak?akoca is a List of cities in Turkey and a district of D?zce Province in the Black Sea Region, Turkey region of Turkey. It is located on the shore of the Black Sea about 200 km east of Istanbul, Turkey....
in Düzce

Düzce Province

D?zce is a province in northwestern Turkey. It is on the coastline of the Black Sea and is traversed by the main highway between Istanbul and Ankara....
, Sapanca

Sapanca

Sapanca is a town and district of Sakarya Province in the Marmara Region, Turkey region of Turkey.External links*...
in Sakarya

Sakarya Province

Sakarya is a city and province of the same name in Turkey, located on the coast of Black Sea. The river Sakarya feeds this beautiful location. The river creates a webbing of estuaries in the province....
, Karamürsel

Karamürsel

Karam?rsel is a town located in northwestern Turkey, in the province of Kocaeli Province. It is on the coast of Izmit Bay and has beautiful shores....
and Gölcük

Gölcük

G?lc?k is a district of Kocaeli Province of Turkey. Located on the coast of Marmara Sea and south of the province. It is the district where the 1999 earthquake disaster happened....
in Kocaeli, Bartin

Bartin Province

Bartin is a small province in northern Turkey on the Black Sea, surrounding the city of Bartin. It is to the east from Zonguldak.The town of Bartin contains a number of very old wooden houses which are no longer extant in other places....
, and Yalova

Yalova Province

Yalova Province is a Provinces of Turkey in northwestern Turkey, on the eastern coast of the Sea of Marmara. Its adjacent provinces are Bursa Province to the south and Kocaeli Province to the west....
) where many immigrants settled since the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878) and now also in Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey, List of metropolitan areas in Europe by population, and List of cities proper by population in the world with a population of 12.6 million....
and Ankara

Ankara

Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and the country's List of largest cities and second largest cities by country List of cities in Turkey after Istanbul....
. Only a few Laz live in Georgia, chiefly in Ajaria. Laz are also present in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
where they have migrated from Turkey since the 1960s.

Social and cultural status

Laz has no official status in either Turkey or Georgia, and no written standard. It is presently used only for familiar and casual interaction; for literary, business, and other purposes, Laz speakers use their country's official language (Turkish

Turkish language

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
rather than Georgia. While the differences between the various dialects are minor, their speakers feel that their level of mutual intelligibility is low. Given that there is no common standard form of Laz, speakers of its different dialects use Turkish

Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other parts of Eastern Europe....
to communicate with each other.

Between 1930 and 1938, Zan (Laz and Mingrelian) enjoyed cultural autonomy in Georgia and was used as a literary language, but an official standard form of the tongue was never established. Since then, all attempts to create a written tradition in Zan have failed, despite the fact that most intellectuals use it as a literary language.

In Turkey, Laz has been a written language since 1984, when an alphabet based on Turkish script with Latin alphabet

Latin alphabet

The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumae alphabet, and was initially developed by the Ancient Romes to write the Latin....
was created. Since then, this system has been used in most of the handful of publications that have appeared in Laz. Developed specifically for the South Caucasian languages, the Georgian alphabet

Georgian alphabet

The Georgian alphabet is the writing system currently used to write the Georgian language and other South Caucasian languages , and occasionally other languages of the Caucasus ....
is better suited to the sounds of Laz, but the fact that most of the tongue's speakers live in Turkey, where the Latin alphabet is used, has rendered the adoption of the former impossible. Nonetheless, 1991 saw the publication of a textbook called Nana-nena ('Mother tongue'), which was aimed at all Laz speakers and used both the Latin and Georgian alphabets. The first Laz-Turkish dictionary was published in 1999.

The only languages in which the Laz receive an education are Turkish (in Turkey) and Georgian (in Georgia). Virtually all the Laz are bilingual in Turkish and Laz or in Georgian and Laz. Even in villages inhabited exclusively by Laz people, it is common to hear conversations in Turkish

Turkish language

Georgian language

Georgian is the official language of Georgia , a country in the Caucasus .Georgian is the primary language of about 3.9 million people in Georgia itself, and of another 500,000 abroad ....
. Turkish has had a notable influence on the vocabulary of Laz.

Laz speakers themselves basically regard the language

Language

A language is a form of symbol communication in which elements are combined to represents something other than themselves. Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general phenomenon....
as a means of oral communication. The families that still speak Laz only do so among adults in informal situations, with Turkish or Georgian being used in all other contexts. This means that the younger generations fail to fully acquire the language and only gain a passive knowledge of it.

In recent times, the Laz folk musician Birol Topaloglu has achieved a certain degree of international success with his albums Heyamo (1997, the first album ever sung entirely in the Laz language) and Aravani (2000). The Laz rock and roll musician Kazim Koyuncu

Kâzim Koyuncu

Kazim Koyuncu was a Turkey folk-rock singer, song writer, and activist.An ethnic Laz people, Koyuncu recorded songs in a number of languages spoken along the northeastern Black Sea coast of Turkey, as well as the regional Turkish language dialect....
performed rock and roll arrangements of Laz traditional music from 1995 until his death in 2005.

In 2004, Dr. Mehmet Bekâroglu, the deputy chairman of Felicity Party sent a notice to the state

State

A state is a political Social contract with effective sovereignty over a geographic area and representing a population. These may be nation states, State or multinational states....
broadcasting

Broadcasting

Broadcasting is distribution of Sound and/or video Signalling s which transmit programs to an audience. The audience may be the general public or a relatively large sub-audience, such as children or young adults....
corporation

Corporation

A corporation is a legal entity separate from the persons that form it. It is a legal entity owned by individual stockholders. In British tradition it is the term designating a body corporate, where it can be either a corporation sole or a corporation aggregate ....
TRT

Turkish Radio and Television Corporation

The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation also known as TRT, , was founded in 1964, it is the national public broadcasting of Turkey....
declaring that his mother tongue is Laz and demanding broadcasts in Laz. The same year, a group of Laz intellectuals issued a petition and held a meeting with TRT officials for the implementation of Laz broadcasts. However, as of 2008, these requests have been ignored by authorities.

Linguistic features

Like many languages of the Caucasus

Languages of the Caucasus

The languages of the Caucasus are a large and extremely varied array of languages spoken by more than ten million people in and around the Caucasus Mountains, which lie between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea....
, Laz has a rich consonantal system (in fact, the richest among the South Caucasian family) but only five vowels (a,e,i,o,u). The noun

Noun

In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open class lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition....
s are inflected with agglutinative suffixes to indicate grammatical function

Grammatical function

In linguistics, grammatical functions or refer to syntactic relationships between parts of speech such as subject , object , adjunct, complement ....
(4 to 7 cases, depending on the dialect) and number (singular or plural), but not by gender.

The Laz verb is inflected with suffixes according to person and number, and also for Grammatical tense

Grammatical tense

Grammatical tense is a temporal language quality expressing the time at, during, or over which a state or action denoted by a verb occurs.Tense is one of at least five qualities, along with grammatical mood, grammatical voice, grammatical aspect, and grammatical person, which verb forms may express....
, aspect

Grammatical aspect

In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb defines the temporal flow in the described event or state. In English, for example, the past-tense sentences "I swam" and "I was swimming" differ in aspect ....
, mood

Grammatical mood

Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive verb forms that are used to signal Linguistic modality.It is distinct from grammatical tense or grammatical aspect, although these concepts are conflated to some degree in many languages, including English and most other modern Indo-European languages, insofar as the same word patterns are used...
, and (in some dialects) evidentiality

Evidentiality

In linguistics, evidentiality is, broadly, the indication of the nature of evidence for a given statement, that is, whether evidence exists for the statement and/or what kind of evidence exists....
. Up to 50 verbal prefixes are used to indicate spatial orientation/direction. Person and number suffixes provided for the subject as well as for one or two objects involved in the action, e.g. gimpulam = "I hide it from you".

Distinguishing features

Some distinctive features of Laz among its family are:

Two additional consonants, /f/ and /h/;
All nouns end with a vowel.
More extensive verb inflection, using directional prefixes.
Substantial lexical borrowings from Greek and Turkic languages
Turkic languages

The Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean Sea to Siberia and Western China, and are sometimes considered to be part of the proposed Altaic languages....
.

Vocabulary

ho — yes
va — no / * var (Arhavi dialect)
ma — I
si — you (sg.)
skani — your (sg.)
çkimi — my
Gegeacginas. / Xela do k’aobate. (??????????. / ???? ?? ???????.) — Hello.
Kai serepe. (??? ??????.) — Good night.
Kai moxt’it. (??? ??????.) — Welcome. / Kai ten ***
Didi mardi. (???? ?????.) — Thanks.
Muç’ore? (???????) — How are you?
Kai vore. (??? ????.) — I'm fine. Kai bore (Arhavi dialect)
Dido xelebas vore. (???? ??????? ????.) — I'm very happy
Sonuri re? (?????? ???) — Where are you from?
T’amt’ra — Trabzon
Trabzon

Trabzon is a city on the Black Sea coast of north-eastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. Trabzon, located on the historical Silk Road became a melting pot of religions, languages and culture for centuries and a trade gateway to Iran in the southeast, Russia and the Caucasus to the northeast....
,
Londoni — London
Turkona / Turketi (??????? / ???????) — Turkey
Xorumona (????????) — Greece
Xorz'a / Oxorca — woman
K'oçi — man
Bozo — girl
Biç’i — boy
Supara — book
Megabre (???????) — friend
Qoropa — love
Mu dulya ikip? (?? ????? ?????) — What is your job? / Mu dulya ikom (Arhavi dialekt)
Lazuri giskuni? (?????? ????????) — Do you know Laz? / Lazuri gickini (Arhavi dialekt)
Skani coxo muren? (????? ???? ??????) — What is your name?
Ma si maoropen. (?? ?? ????????.) — I love you

External links

Laz Cultur - Information about Lazs, Laz Language, Culture, Music] (Turkish und Laz)
Laz Cultur - Information about Lazs, Laz Language, Culture, Music]
Laz Cultur - Information about Lazs, Laz Language, Culture, Music and Laz Diaspora]
Information about]
by Silvia Kutscher.

Laz language

Linguistic classification

Dialects

Laz Dialects

Geographical distribution

Social and cultural status

Linguistic features

Distinguishing features

Vocabulary

See also

External links