This article is about the Northeast Caucasian language. For the Kurdish variety, seeLaki dialect. For the Kartvelian language, seeLaz language. For the Austronesian language, seeSiar-Lak language. For the language with former ISO 639-3 code "lak", seeLau Laka language.
This article shouldspecify the language of its non-English content, using{{lang}} or{{langx}},{{transliteration}} for transliterated languages, and{{IPA}} for phonetic transcriptions, with an appropriateISO 639 code. Wikipedia'smultilingual support templates may also be used - notablylbe for Lak.See why.(January 2025)
Lak (лакку маз,[lakːumaz]) is aNortheast Caucasian language forming its own branch within this family. It is the language of theLak people from theRussian autonomous republic ofDagestan, where it is one of six standardized languages. It is spoken by about 157,000 people.
Cover page of the textbook on Lak grammar named "Лакскiй языкъ" orThe Lak language compiled by P. K. Uslar in 1890"Лакская азбука" orThe Lak alphabet. Many called the language "Bak Tak" from Peter Uslar's Lak Grammar.Gospel of Luke andActs of the Apostles in Lak, 2019
In 1864 Russian ethnographer and linguistP. 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".[2]
In 1890, P. K. Uslar compiled a textbook on Lak grammar titledThe 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'."[2]
Lak has throughout the centuries adopted a number ofloanwords fromArabic,Turkish,Persian, andRussian.[3] Ever sinceDagestan was part of theSoviet Union and laterRussia, the largest portion of loanwords have come fromRussian, especially political and technical vocabulary. There is a newspaper and broadcasting station in Lak.[4]
In accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Dagestan of 1994, Lak 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 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 ofKumukh. This city should not be confused with theKumyk ethnic group, aTurkic people also present in theCaucasus. Lak has the following dialects: Kumukh, Vitskhi, Arakul, Balkhar, Shadni, Shalib, Vikhli, Kuli, and Kaya.
Initially Lak by lexicon was found to be close toDargin and the two were often combined in one Lak–Dargin subgroup of Dagestani languages. However, further research has led linguists to conclude that this association was insufficient.
Five vowels are presented as /i, e, a, o, u/. Three vowels /i, a, u/ are also pharyngealized as /iˤ, aˤ, uˤ/, and also have allophones of [e, æ, œ].[8]
The Lak language was written using theArabic script until 1928. Afterwards it was written with aLatin alphabet for ten years, and since 1938 it has been written inCyrillic.
The Lak alphabet in Cyrillic initially included 48 letters and later 54 letters with double letters as "тт", "пп", "чч", "хьхь", etc.:
Lak is one of the few North East Caucasian languages with verbalagreement for person. It generally only distinguishes between speech-act participants and non-speech-act participants. In other words, the first- and second-person agreement markers are the same.[14]
Singular
Plural
1,2
-ra
-ru
3
-r /-ri /-∅
Thefree pronouns of Lak do distinguish first and second person.[6]
^abP. K. Uslar. Этнография Кавказа [Ethnography of the Caucasus]. Языкознание [Linguistics]. 4. Лакский язык [The Lak language]. Tbilisi, 1890.
^Словарь арабских и персидских лексических заимствований в лакском языке [Dictionary of Arabic and Persian lexical borrowings in Lak language]. N. B. Kurbaytayeva, I. I. Efyendiyev. Makhachkala, 2002.
^"Lakh romanization"(PDF). Institute of the Estonian Language. 2003-04-27.Archived(PDF) from the original on 2015-04-27. Retrieved2016-02-13.
^Yevlampiev, Ilya; Pentzlin, Karl; Joomagueldinov, Nurlan. (2011, May 20)Revised Proposal to encode Arabic characters used for Bashkir, Belarusian, Crimean Tatar, and Tatar languages - Unicodehttps://unicode.org/L2/L2011/11209-n4072-arabic.pdf
^The Lak Language — Лакку маз. A Quick Reference Author: Wolfgang Schulze (IATS, LMU Munich). 2007
^Helmbrecht, J. (1996). "The Syntax of Personal Agreement in East Caucasian Languages".Sprachtypol. Univ. Frsch. (STUF) 49:127–48. Cited in Bhat, D.N.S. 2004.Pronouns. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 26.
