Laz language
Laz | |
---|---|
Lazuri, ლაზური | |
Native to | |
Ethnicity | Laz |
Native speakers | 22,000 (2007)[1] |
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | lzz |
Glottolog | lazz1240 |
ELP | Laz |
Kartvelian Languages | |
Laz is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Laz people |
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The Laz language or Lazuri (Laz: ლაზური ნენა, romanized: lazuri nena; Mingrelian: ლაზური ნინა, romanized: lazuri nina;
Laz is not historically a written language or literary language. As of 1989, Benninghaus could write that the Laz themselves had no interest in writing in Laz.[3]
Classification
Laz is one of the four
History
Although the Laz people are recorded in written sources repeatedly from antiquity onwards, the earliest written evidence of their language is from 1787. There is a poem in
Geographical distribution
The
The oldest known settlement of the Lazoi is the town of Lazos or "old Lazik" which Arrian puts 680 stadia (about 80 miles) south of the Sacred Port (Novorossiisk) and 1,020 stadia (100 miles) north of Pityus, i.e.somewhere in the neighborhood of Tuapse. Kiessling sees in the Lazoi a section of the Kerketai, who in the first centuries of the Christian era had to migrate southwards under pressure from the Zygoi. The same author regards the Kerketai as a "Georgian" tribe. The fact is that at the time of Arrian (2nd century A.D.), the Lazoi were already living to the south of Um. The order of the peoples living along the coast to the east of Trebizond was as follows: Colchi (and Sanni); Machelones; Heniochi; Zydritae; Lazai, subjects of King Malassus, who owned the suzerainty of Rome; Apsilae; Abacsi; Sanigae near Sebastopolis.[6]
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 or Georgian).
Laz is unique among the Kartvelian languages in that most of its speakers live in Turkey 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 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 language 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 the
Speaking Laz was forbidden in Turkey between 1980 and 1991 because this was seen as a political threat to unity of the country. During this era, some of the academicians regret the existence of the Laz ethnic group. Because speaking Laz was banned in public areas, many children lost their mother tongue as a result of not communicating with their parents. Most Laz people have a heavy Turkish accent because they can not practice their mother tongue.[7]
Statistics in Turkey (1935–2007)
Year | Laz speakers | % | notes |
---|---|---|---|
1935[8] | 63,253 (first language)
5,061 (second language) |
0.42% | Census |
1945[8] | 39,232 (first language)
4,956 (second language) |
0.24% | |
1950[8] | 70,423 (total) | 0.34% | |
1955[8] | 30,566 (first language)
19,144 (second language) |
0.21% | |
1960[8] | 21,703 (first language)
38,275 (second language) |
0.22% | |
1965[8] | 26,007 (first language)
55,158 (second language) |
0.26% | |
1980[9] | 30,000 (first language) | 0.07% | Estimate |
2007[1] | 20,000 (total) | 0.03% |
Writing system
Laz is written in
Latin (Used in Turkey)[11] |
Mkhedruli (Used in Georgia) |
Transliteration of Mkhedruli |
IPA | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A a | ა | a | /ɑ/ | |||
B b | ბ | b | /b/ | |||
C c | ჯ | j | /d͡ʒ/ | |||
Ç ç | ჩ | ch | /t͡ʃ/ | |||
Ç̌ ç̌ | Ç̆ ç̆ | Ç' ç' | ჭ | chʼ | /t͡ʃʼ/ | |
D d | დ | d | / d /
| |||
E e | ე | e | /ɛ/ | |||
F f | ჶ | f | /f/ | |||
G g | გ | g | /ɡ/ | |||
Ǧ ǧ | Ğ ğ | ღ | gh | /ɣ/ | ||
H h | ჰ | h | /h/ | |||
I i | ი | i | /i/ | |||
J j | ჟ | zh | /ʒ/ | |||
K k | ქ | k | /k/ | |||
Ǩ ǩ | K̆ k̆ | K' k' | კ | kʼ | /kʼ/ | |
L l | ლ | l | / l /
| |||
M m | მ | m | /m/ | |||
N n | ნ | n | / n /
| |||
O o | ო | o | /ɔ/ | |||
P p | ფ | p | /p/ | |||
P̌ p̌ | P̆ p̆ | P' p' | პ | pʼ | /pʼ/ | |
Q q | ყ | qʼ | /qʼ/ | |||
R r | რ | r | / r /
| |||
S s | ს | s | /s/ | |||
Ş ş | შ | sh | /ʃ/ | |||
T t | თ | t | / t /
| |||
Ť ť | T̆ t̆ | T' t' | ტ | tʼ | / tʼ /
| |
U u | უ | u | /u/ | |||
V v | ვ | v | /v/ | |||
X x | ხ | kh | /x/ | |||
Y y | ჲ | y | /j/ | |||
Z z | ზ | z | /z/ | |||
Ž ž | Z̆ z̆ | Z' z' | ძ | dz | /d͡z/ | |
Ʒ ʒ | 3 | Ts ts | ც | ts | /t͡s/ | |
Ǯ ǯ | Ʒ̆ ʒ̆ | 3' | Ts' ts' | წ | tsʼ | /t͡sʼ/ |
Linguistic features
Like many
Phonology
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stop
|
plain | p | t
|
k | |||
voiced | b | d
|
ɡ | ||||
ejective | pʼ | tʼ
|
kʼ | qʼ | |||
Affricate
|
plain | t͡s | t͡ʃ | ||||
voiced | d͡z | d͡ʒ | |||||
ejective | t͡sʼ | t͡ʃʼ | |||||
Fricative
|
plain | f | s | ʃ | x | h | |
voiced | v | z | ʒ | ɣ | |||
Nasal | m | n
|
|||||
Approximant
|
l
|
j | |||||
Trill | r
|
Front | Back | |
---|---|---|
Close | i | u |
Mid | ɛ | ɔ |
Open | ɑ |
Grammar
Some distinctive features of Laz among its family are:
- All nouns end with a vowel.
- More extensive verb inflection, using directional prefixes.
- Some lexical borrowings from Greek and Turkic languages.
See also
References
- ^ a b c Laz at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913–1936, Volume 5, p. 21, at Google Books
- ^ Benninghaus, Rüdiger (1989). "The Laz: Example of Multiple Identification". In Peter Alfred, Andrews; Benninghaus, Rüdiger (eds.). Ethnic Groups in the Republic of Turkey. p. 498.
- ^ Zaal Kikvidze and Levan Pachulia, "A Spotlight on the 'Lazian' Lexis: Evidence from a 19th-Century Lexicographica Resource", in Züleyha Ünlü and Brian George Hewitt (eds.), Lazuri: An Endangered Language from the Black Sea (Vernon Press, 2023), pp. 63–84.
- ^ Grove, T. (2012). Materials for a Comprehensive History of the Caucasus, with an Emphasis on Greco-Roman Sources. http://timothygrove.blogspot.com/2012/07/materials-for-comprehensive-history-of.html
- ISBN 9789004082656.
- ^ Ozfidan, Burhan (2017). "Historical Background of Laz Language in Turkey". The development of a bilingual education cirriculum in Turkey: A mixed method study (PhD). Texas A&M University. pp. 49–55.
- ^ ISBN 975-8086-77-4.
- ^ Laz language at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
- ^ a b Kutscher, Silvia (2008). "The language of the Laz in Turkey: Contact-induced change or gradual language loss?" (PDF). Turkic Languages. 12: 83. Retrieved 10 August 2020.
Laz data are written in the Lazoglu & Feurstein-alphabet introduced to the Laz community in Turkey in 1984. It deviates from the Caucasianists' transcription in the following graphemes (<Laz = Caucasianist>): <ç = č>, <c = j [j breve]>, <ǩ = kʼ>, <p̌ = p'>, <ş = š>, , <ʒ = c>, <ǯ =c'>.
- ^ Özüm Ak 2018
Bibliography
- Anderson, Ralph Dewitt. (1963). A Grammar of Laz. Ann Arbor: UMI. (Doctoral dissertation, Austin: University of Texas at Austin; vi+127pp.)
- Grove, Timothy (2012). Materials for a Comprehensive History of the Caucasus, with an Emphasis on Greco-Roman Sources. A Star in the East: Materials for a Comprehensive History of the Caucasus, with an Emphasis on Greco-Roman sources (2012)
- Kojima, Gôichi (2003) Lazuri grameri Chiviyazıları, Kadıköy, İstanbul, ISBN 975-8663-55-0(notes in English and Turkish)
- Nichols, Johanna (1998). The origin and dispersal of languages: Linguistic evidence. In N. G. Jablonski & L. C. Aiello (Eds.), The origin and diversification of language. San Francisco: California Academy of Sciences.
- Nichols, Johanna (2004). The origin of the Chechen and Ingush: A study in Alpine linguistic and ethnic geography. Anthropological Linguistics 46(2): 129–155.
- Özüm Ak, Zeynep (2018). Understanding the problems of the support of an endangered language in typography: Proposal of a typeface that supports the Laz language. Escola Superior de Arte e Design de Matosinhos. hdl:10400.26/22318.
- Tuite, Kevin. (1996). Highland Georgian paganism — archaism or innovation?: Review of Zurab K’ik’nadze. 1996. Kartuli mitologia, I. ǰvari da saq’mo. (Georgian mythology, I. The cross and his people [sic].). Annual of the Society for the Study of Caucasia 7: 79–91.
External links
- (in Turkish) Lazkulturdernegi.org.tr
- (in Turkish) Laz Cultur – Information about Lazs, Laz Language, Culture, Music
- (in Turkish) Laz Cultur – Information about Lazs, Laz Language, Culture, Music
- (in Turkish) Laz Cultur – Information about Lazs, Laz Language, Culture, Music and Laz Diaspora
- Lazuri Nena – The Language of the Laz by Silvia Kutscher.
- Laz-Turkish full dictionary in word format
- Samples of Laz Language in English, Dutch and Turkish, Arzu Barské – Erdogan on Yahoo! GeoCities
- Laz history and language, Lazlar, Yilmaz Erdogan on Yahoo! GeoCities
- Laz Georgian-Latin and Latin-Georgian converter