Essential Laz
The words you need first: how to greet someone, how to give your name, the people in a family, and how to count. Every Laz word here is written in the Latin alphabet used in Turkey — the alphabet page explains how to say the letters.
Greetings
- XelaǩaobaHello
- DogitananGood morning
- Ǩai ndğalepeGood day
- Ǩai ondğerepeGood afternoon
- Ǩai lumcepeGood evening
- Ǩai serepeGood night
- ǨaiteGoodbye
- Çkva ǩaiteSee you again
Introducing yourself
Two people meeting for the first time, from the opening lesson of the Laz course on Turkish Wikibooks.
Saying it yourself
- Coxo çkimi … renMy name is …
- Coxo skani mu ren?What is your name?
- Muç̌ore?How are you?
- ǨaiWell
- Dido ǩaiVery well
- MaI
- SiYou
- ÇkuWe
Family
- nanamother
- babafather
- berechild
- skirison
- bozogirl
- cumabrother
- dasister
- p̌ap̌ugrandfather
- nandidigrandmother
- motagrandchild
- cumadipaternal uncle
- cumadimaternal uncle
- bulapaternal aunt
- bulamaternal aunt
- ocağifamily
- eǩrabarelative
- komocihusband
- çiliwife
- nusabride
- noğamegroom
Turkish separates the two sides of a family: dayı is a mother's brother, amca a father's. Laz uses one word for both — cumadi for either uncle, bula for either aunt.
Numbers
- Çkari / Sufuri0
- Ar1
- Jur2
- Sum3
- Otxo4
- Xut5
- Aşi6
- Şkvit7
- Ovro8
- Nçxoro9
- Vit10
- Vit'ar11
- Vit'ojur12
- Vit'osum13
- Eç20
- Eçidoar21
- Eçido vit30
- Jureçi40
- Jureneçi do vit50
- Oşi100
- Oşi do vit110
- Juroşi200
- Şilya1 000
- Miliyoni1 000 000
Laz counts in twenties rather than tens. Eç is 20, jureçi is 40 — two twenties — and eçido vit is 30, twenty and ten. French does the same at quatre-vingts, and so does Georgian, the language Laz is most closely related to.
Cultural terms
Words that turn up when reading about the Laz — places, instruments, historical terms — explained rather than simply translated.
16 terms
Batumi
ba-TOO-meeBlack Sea port in Georgia
Port city in Adjara, Georgia, and home to the Laz community on the Georgian side of the border. Its annexation by Russia in 1878 set off the Laz migrations that scattered families across the Ottoman lands.
Read moreColchis
KOL-kisThe kingdom before Lazica
The Greek name for the kingdom on this coast, the land of the Golden Fleece in the myth of Jason and the Argonauts. Its people are thought to have spoken early Zan, the ancestor of both Laz and Mingrelian, which makes this the oldest written trace of the language.
Read moreDerebey
deh-reh-BAYValley lord
Literally lord of the valley. Local notables who held the real power in the mountains while Ottoman authority stayed nominal. The Tuzcuoğlu family were derebeys of this coast, and their revolts against Istanbul ran from 1814 to 1834.
Read moreEgrisi
eh-GREE-seeGeorgian name for Lazica
What Georgian sources call the kingdom the Greeks and Byzantines called Lazica, and before that Colchis. Three names, one country, depending on who was writing.
Read moreFırtına
FUR-tuh-naThe storm river
A river of Rize province whose Turkish name means storm water. More than twenty Ottoman-era humpback bridges still cross it, and the valley it cuts is among the most photographed landscapes of the Laz country.
Read moreHoron
ho-RONBlack Sea line dance
A group dance of the eastern Black Sea, danced shoulder to shoulder or hand in hand in a line or circle, with rapid trembling steps said to echo the shivering of anchovies in the net. Each district has its own version.
Read moreKaçkar
kach-KARThe mountains behind the coast
The range rising straight off the Black Sea coast, reaching 3,937 m at Kaçkar Dağı. It was formerly known as the Lazistan Mountains. Its wall of rock is why the valleys stayed separate long enough for the dialects to drift apart.
Read moreKartvelian
kart-VEH-lee-anThe language family Laz belongs to
Also called South Caucasian. It groups Georgian, Mingrelian, Svan and Laz, and is related to no other language family in the world. Laz and Mingrelian form its Zan branch and are close enough that speakers can follow parts of each other's speech.
Read moreKemençe
keh-MEN-chehBlack Sea fiddle
A narrow three-stringed fiddle held upright on the knee or against the chest, not under the chin. Its bow touches two strings at once, which is why Black Sea melodies so often move in pairs of notes. With the tulum, it carries most of the region's dance music.
Read moreLazica
la-ZEE-kaAncient kingdom on this coast
A kingdom on the eastern Black Sea from around the 1st century BC, emerging as Colchis broke apart and independent by 131 AD. Laz calls it Laziǩa, Georgian Egrisi. Byzantium and Sassanid Persia fought the Lazic War (541-562) over it.
Read moreLazistan
LAZ-ee-stanThe Laz homeland
The historical name for the Laz country along the south-eastern Black Sea, from west of Trabzon to the Georgian border. It was an Ottoman sanjak until 1923; the name then fell out of official use, but the place and its people did not.
Read moreMuhacir
moo-ha-JEEROttoman Muslim refugee
The term for Muslims who fled or were expelled into Ottoman territory as the empire lost ground. When Russia annexed Batumi in 1878, Laz families left in large numbers and settled along the Marmara coast, which is why Laz communities exist today far from the Black Sea.
Read moreNokalakevi
no-ka-LA-keh-veeArchaeopolis, the fortified capital
An archaeological site in western Georgia, known to the Greeks as Archaeopolis, the old city. A fortified capital of Lazica-Egrisi, besieged during the Lazic War and still standing in part today.
Read moreRize
REE-zehProvince at the heart of the Laz country
The Turkish province holding much of the Laz homeland, and the former seat of the Sanjak of Lazistan. Tea terraces cover its hillsides today; before tea arrived in the 1920s the same slopes grew maize and hazelnuts.
Read moreSanjak
san-JAKOttoman district
An administrative division of the Ottoman Empire, from the word for banner. The Sanjak of Lazistan, centred on Rize, is the reason the name Lazistan appears on old maps and in official records.
Read moreTulum
too-LOOMLaz bagpipe
A droneless bagpipe with two parallel chanters, called guda in Laz. Unlike the Scottish pipes it has no drone, which gives it its restless, insistent sound. Played across Pazar, Ardeşen, Fındıklı, Arhavi and Hopa, by Laz, Hemshin and Pontic Greek musicians alike.
Read more
No term matches that search.
Greetings, dialogue and numbers from the Laz course on Turkish Wikibooks. Family words from the dictionary on this site.
Where to go next
The dictionary holds nearly three thousand words in six languages, with example sentences. The proverbs and first names pages show the language as it is actually used.