Lak language

This article is about the Northeast Caucasian language. For the Kurdish variety, see Laki dialect. For the Kartvelian language, see Laz language.

Lak
лакку маз (lakːu maz)
Native to	Russia
Region	Southern Dagestan
Ethnicity	Laks
Native speakers	150,000 (2010 census)
Language family	Northeast Caucasian Lak
Writing system	Cyrillic (Lak alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	Dagestan (Russia)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	lbe
Glottolog	lakk1252
Lak

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.

History

Cover page of the textbook on Lak grammar named "Лакскiй языкъ" or The Lak language compiled by P. K. Uslar in 1890

"Лакская азбука" or The Lak alphabet from Peter Uslar's Lak Grammar

In 1864 Russian ethnographer and linguist P. K. Uslar wrote: "Kazikumukh grammar or as I called it for short in the native language, the Lak grammar, Lakku maz, the Lak language, is ready".

In 1890 a textbook was published on Lak grammar compiled by P.K. Uslar named as The Lak Language. It stated under the title "Lak alphabet": "The proposed alphabet is written for people who name themselves collectively Lak, genitive Lakral. From among these people each one is named separately Lakkuchu 'Lakian man,' the woman — Lakkusharssa 'Lakian woman.' Their homeland they name Lakral kIanu — 'Lak place.'"

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 in Lak language.

In accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Dagestan of 1994, Lak language was named as the state language along with Russian and some other major languages spoken in Dagestan (about 20 local languages are unwritten and have no official status). Lak language is used as a teaching tool in elementary school and taught as a subject in secondary schools, vocational schools and universities. There is a Lak newspaper, "Ilchi".

The standard Lak language is based on the dialect of the city of Kumukh. This city should not be confused with the Kumyk ethnic group, a Turkic people also present in the Caucasus. To sum up, the Lak language has the following dialects: Kumukh, Vitskhi, Arakul, Balkhar, Shadni, Shalib, Vikhli, Kuli, and Kaya.

Initially Lak language by lexicon was found to be close to Dargin language and the two were often combined in one Lak-Dargin subgroup of Dagestani languages. However, further research has led the scientists to conclude that this association was weak. Recent research points to the grammatical closeness of the Lak language with Avaro-Ando-Tsezic subgroup of languages.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonant phonemes of Lak

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

Grammar

Although most verbal agreement systems distinguish between the first, second, and third persons (as well as number), Lak is one of the few languages that distinguishes only between speech-act participants and non-speech-act participants. In other words, the first- and second-person agreement markers are the same.

	Singular	Plural
1,2	-ra	-ru
3	-r / -ri / -∅

The free pronouns of Lak do distinguish first and second person.

	Singular		Plural
	Absolutive	Oblique
1	na	tːu-	žu(-)
2	ina	wi-	zu(-)

Writing systems

The Lak language was written using the Arabic script until 1928. Afterwards it was written with a Latin alphabet for ten years, and since 1938 it has been written in Cyrillic.

The Lak alphabet in Cyrillic initially included 48 letters and later 54 letters with double letters as "тт", "пп", "чч", "хьхь", etc.:

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	КӀ кӏ	Л л	М м	Н н	О о	Оь оь	П п
Пп пп	ПӀ пӏ	Р р	С с	Т т	ТӀ тӏ	У у	Ф ф
Х х	Хъ хъ	Хь хь	ХӀ хӏ	Ц ц	ЦӀ цӏ	Ч ч	ЧӀ чӏ
Ш ш	Щ щ	Ъ ъ	Ы ы	Ь ь	Э э	Ю ю	Я я

Obsolete Lak alphabets in Latin script

References

• Lak Grammar by Wolfgang Schulze
• Transliteration of Lak
• Lak House – Lak culture and society site
• Lak words