Lak language

Lak
лакку маз (lakːu maz)
Spoken in	Southern Dagestan
Ethnicity	Laks
Native speakers	157,000  (2002)
Language family	Northeast Caucasian Lak
Writing system	Cyrillic (Lak alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	Dagestan
Regulated by	No official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-3	lbe

The Lak language (лакку маз, lakːu maz) is a Northeast Caucasian language forming its own branch within this family. It is the language of the Lak people from the Russian autonomous republic of Dagestan, where it is one of six standardized languages. It is spoken by about 157,000 people.

In the past it was also referred to as Gazi-Qumuq (Гьази-Кьумукь), which was transliterated via Russian as Kazi-Kumukh (Кази-Кумук) or Kasi-Kumukh (Каси-Кумук), in which Gazi or Kasi means 'warrior for faith'. The standard language is based on the dialect of the city of Kumukh. This city should not be confused with the ethnic group, also present in the Caucasus. Other major dialects are the Arakul, Shadnin, Khosrekh, and Vitskhi (Wicxi, Vicxi) dialects.^{[citation needed]}

Lak has throughout the centuries adopted a number of loanwords from Arabic, Turkish, Persian, and Russian. Ever since Dagestan was part of the USSR and later Russia, the largest portion of loanwords have come from Russian, especially political and technical vocabulary.

There is a newspaper and broadcasting station^{[citation needed]} in Lak.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonant phonemes of Lak

		Labial		Dental		Alveolar				Palatal	Velar				Uvular				Epi- glottal	Glottal
						plain		lab.			plain		lab.		plain		lab.
		lenis	fortis	lenis	fortis	lenis	fortis	lenis	fortis		lenis	fortis	lenis	fortis	lenis	fortis	lenis	fortis
Nasal		m		n
Plosive	voiced	b		d							ɡ		gʷ						ʡ
	voiceless	p	pː	t	tː						k	kː	kʷ	kːʷ	q	qː	qʷ	qːʷ		ʔ
	ejective	pʼ		tʼ							kʼ		kʷʼ		qʼ		qʷʼ
Affricate	voiceless			t͡s	t͡sː	t͡ʃ	t͡ʃː	t͡ʃʷ	t͡ʃːʷ
	ejective			t͡sʼ		t͡ʃʼ		t͡ʃʷʼ
Fricative	voiceless			s	sː	ʃ	ʃː	ʃʷ	ʃːʷ		x	xː	xʷ	xːʷ	χ	χː	χʷ	χːʷ	ʜ	h
	voiced	v ~ w ~ ʙ		z		ʒ		ʒʷ							ʁ		ʁʷ
Trill						r
Approximant				l						j

• The consonants in orange are given by Schulze, but not by TITUS. The consonant /ʡ/ (grey) is given by TITUS, but not by Schulze.
• The sound transcribed here as a glottal stop is named rather ambiguously a "glottalic laryngeal" by both sources.
• Note that both sources name the epiglottal series ″pharyngeal″ indiscriminately in all the tables, the first one also when it includes a plosive and thus cannot be a true pharyngeal.

Writings systems

Until 1928, the Arabic script was used to write the language. Afterwards it was written with a Latin alphabet for ten years, and since 1938 it has been written in Cyrillic.

А а	Аь аь	Б б	В в	Г г	Гъ гъ	Гь гь	Д д
Е е	Ё ё	Ж ж	З з	И и	Й й	К к	Къ къ
Кь кь	КI кI	Л л	М м	Н н	О о	Оь Оь	П п
ПI пI	Р р	С с	Т т	ТI тI	У у	Ф ф	Х х
Хъ хъ	Хь хь	ХI хI	Ц ц	ЦI цI	Ч ч	ЧI чI	Ш ш
Щ щ	Ъ ъ	Ы ы	Ь ь	Э э	Ю ю	Я я	I

Lak obsolete Latin alphabet

External links

• Lak Grammar by Wolfgang Schulze
• Lak House – Lak culture and society site
• Лакку Билаят – Lak national forum
• Lak words