Page elaborated by René Lacroix,  Max Planck Institute Leipzig, 2011.

Data on the Laz language

Alternative names: Chan, Chanuri, Chanzan, Laze, Zan

Geographic area: Cities of Hopa, Arhavi, Fındıklı, Ardesen and Pazar as well as the surrounding villages in the mountains. In Georgia, in a border region with Turkey, mainly in the village of Sarpi.

Main dialects:

There are generally 4 or 5 types of Laz dialects, corresponding to the cities of Hopa, Fındıklı-Arhavi, Pazar and Ardeşen.

The variations spoken in Fındıklı and Arhavi are also different on a few levels (Lacroix, 2009).

Classification: Family of South Caucasian or Kartvelian languages, Zan branch

Laz and Mingrelian are two close languages. They sometimes have been considered as two variations of the same Zan language. Nowadays, linguists tend to consider them as two distinctive languages.

Number of speakers: There would be 130,000 Laz speakers according to the UNESCO, but this figure seems too high according to other sources. According to the latest Turkish census dating back to 1965, 26,007 people claimed Laz as their mother tongue. Linguamón estimates this figure between 30,000 and 50,000 speakers and the website Ethnologue.com counts 33,250 Laz speakers. There would be between 2,000 and 5,000 speakers in Georgia (Lacroix, 2009).

Status of the language: No official status in Turkey, nor in Georgia.

Vitality and transmission:

Laz is an endangered language according to UNESCO criteria.

Most speakers are bilingual in Laz and Turkish (or Georgian). Turkish and Georgian are the languages of education. The language is being less and less transmitted. Even in villages of the Laz-speaking area, the language is rarely spoken. According to Lacroix (2009), “young people under 25 still understand the language but don’t speak it anymore”. According to Kutscher (2008), “Laz is a language limited to a home usage within limited family circles.”

Bibliography

Kutscher, Silvia. 2008. The language of the Laz in Turkey: Contact-induced change or gradual language loss ? Turkic Languages 12/1, 82-102

Lacroix, René. 2009. Description du dialecte laze d’Arhavi (caucasique du sud, Turquie) – Grammaire et textes. Thèse, Sciences du langage, Lyon 2, Lyon, xxi + 901 p. Available online (pdf) [02/05/2011]

Links

Page of the Linguamón website dedicated to the Laz language [02/05/2011]

Page of the Ethnologue.com website by the SIL on the Laz language [02/05/2011]