Laz Grammar Gôichi KOJIMA

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Introduction


[1] Where do the Laz speakers live ?

[2]  Do we know the genealogy of the Laz language ?

[3] How is the Laz language written ?


0. Phonemes and Alphabet  

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[1] Where do the Laz speakers live ?


The most part of Laz speakers live in Turkey.


They form a compact language area in the provinces of Rize (districts of Pazar, Çamlıhemşin, Ardeşen and Fındıklı) and Artvin (districts of Arhavi, Hopa and Borçka) which are situated in the East Black Sea coast of the country. The Laz are small minority in Borçka where Georgian is largely spoken as mother tongue. The administrative centre of Çamlıhemşin is inhabited by Turkish speakers (the Hemşinli people).


There are also a great number of language islands in the Northwest regions of Turkey (for example Yalova, Karamürsel, Gölcük, İzmit, Sapanca, Akçakoca and Düzce) since the migration of Laz people from Batumi in Georgia where some Laz villages still remain, following the war between the Ottoman Empire and Russia (1877-1878).


Nowadays a great number of Laz are settled in Istanbul, Ankara and various other cities of Turkey. And it is not rare to meet Laz immigrants in west European countries like Germany and France.

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[2] Do we know the genealogy of the Laz language ?


Serious lexical, structural and dialectological study of the Laz language has just begun today. At this stage we are not yet able to proceed to the comparative study in proper sense. We can however estimate that Laz is a member of the Southwest Caucasian languages which include also Mingrelian, Georgian and Svan. Among them, Mingrelian is the most closely related one with Laz.

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[3] How is the Laz language written ?

 

[1929]


The first trial of giving a written form to the Laz language was done in 1929 at Sukhumi, Abkhasia (belonging to the USSR in that days), by İskender 3’itaşi who published a Laz alphabet in a magazine named “Mçhita Mruncxi” (Mç’ita Mrun3xi).

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He wrote his articles, curiously, in a Laz dialect spoken in the region of Arhavi in Turkey.

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[1967]


Famous French linguist Georges Dumézil published Laz tales at Paris in 1967 (“Documents Anatoliens”). He learned Laz language and tales at Istanbul by some Laz coming from Arhavi .


He used Latin letters, Greek letters, apostrophy and accents in order to transcribe Laz phonemes. His work is purely academic. Obviously he had no intention to propose his transcription system as a possible Laz alphabet.

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[1984]


In 1984, a new Laz alphabet was elaborated in Germany by using the Turkish Latin alphabet and refering to the transcription system used by Georges Dumézil. The author of the alphabet hid himself behind a pen name of Fahri Lazoğlu (*).


(*) Fahri Lazoğlu should be the late Fahri Kahraman, native of the Sidere village in Arhavi, according to a great number of Laz.


In those years, it was forbidden in Turkey to speak and write minority languages (except greek, armenian and ladino).


The author of present article understands very well the situation of Fahri Lazoğlu. He was one day “invited to leave the Turkish territory as early as possible” in 1986, while he was in possession of a “scientific research visa”, after he had wanted to sing a Laz song in a wedding reception.

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[1991]


April 12th 1991 is a date remaining in history for all minorities in Turkey. One law is abolished. It is no more forbidden to speak their own languages in daily life. Yes, only in daily life. It was still forbidden to do it in official places or on the radio. It was still forbidden to write or publish them……..

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[1993]


The first Laz magazine in Turkey, named Ogni, began to be published in 1993. Some of its articles are written in Laz by using the alphabet of Lazoğlu. As this alphabet contains some special letters that cannot be written by ordinary computer because they are not in the fonts, there are innumerable diacritical marks added by hand in this magazine.


Responsibles of the magazine were accused of the “separatism” by the Turkish State although they did not do any political agitation.

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[1999]


In 1999, the first Laz-Turkish dictionary is published in Istanbul by İsmail Avcı Bucaklişi, a Laz from Pazar, and Hasan Uzunhasanoğlu, a Laz from Fındıklı. The authors have no linguistic instruction, but they could accomplish this work by the passion for their mother tongue, in spite of their evident amateurism (1).


Many errors are observed in the order of head words due to an anomaly of the alphabet of Lazoğlu : X is between H and İ, while Q comes before L. The computers cannot understand Lazoğlu’s order.


(1) They should at least abstain from asserting the latin origine of some laz words. It was not necessary to prove their complete ignorance on the matter in such a way.

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[2002]

Since August 2nd 2002, it is not forbidden in Turkey to teach or publish in minority languages …… in theory. In fact, bureaucratic obstacles are so important that the first minority language courses could be opened only in 2004.

For the present, only some kurmanji (kurdish) courses have begun. When other minority language courses will be open ? No one knows the answer.

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[April 2003]


The first collection of Laz songs is published in April 2003 by Gôichi Kojima, at Istanbul. Even before 2 August 2002, there were a number of Laz music tapes and CD’s on sale in public. But it is the first time that Laz songs are published with music notes.


The alphabet of Lazoğlu is used for writing the texts where a great number of typographical errors are observed because the publisher had not enough number of Laz speaking personnel.

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[July 2003]


In July 2003, Gôichi Kojima and İsmail Avcı Bucaklişi published together at Istanbul “Lazca Gramer / Lazuri Grameri / Laz Grammar” by using an alphabet close to the Lazoğlu’s one. It should be a serious reference for future researchers of the Laz language.


Alas, it is not what it should be !

 

İsmail Avcı Bucaklişi replaced, without informing Gôichi Kojima, the last Turkish version of the Introduction with a draft written almost by himself in February 2003 and changed hundreds of passages in the main text and in the English Introduction after the last control done by Kojima.


Thus this Laz Grammar became an amateurish work full of childish errors.

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It is out of question for Gôichi Kojima to leave the Laz Grammar as it is. He is decided to write a new Laz Grammar and open it to the public on the Web.

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[June 2004]


The second week of June 2004 will remain in the memory of ethnic minorities living in Turkey. Public radio and TV broadcasting began in Bosnian, Circassian, Kurmanji (= one of Kurdish languages), Zaza etc. Only programs of actuality and ethnic songs are permitted for 3-4 hours a week. Kurdish, Zaza and some other groups should be happier henceforth, but not the Laz. There is no broadcasting in Laz. Why ? Do the Turks not yet recognize the existence of Laz people and their language ?

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[July 2005]


In July 2005, at Istanbul, Nurdoğan Demir Abaşişi, inhabitant of Rize-Fındıklı, publishes a selection of laz tales (“Lazuri P’aramitepe/ Laz Halk Masalları”, Kolkhis, İstanbul) with a CD.


The author of the Laz-Turkish bilingual book makes no secret of the fact that he has borrowed Laz words from divers dialects with the intention of preventing them from being definitely forgotten. It is yet regrettable that his almost only source of information has been witten by ..... İsmail Avcı Bucaklişi.

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[July 2009]


On 20th July 2009, Kâmil Aksoylu, a Laz native of Arhavi-Lome, published his first book intitled “Laz Kültürü” (= The Laz Culture) (Ankara, Phoenix Yayınevi).


It contains (p.40 ~ 49) an article written by Gôichi Kojima who explanes in a basic language that the antediluvian hypothesus of “Uralo-Altaic language family” has nothing credible contrary to what is taught in Turkey up to now.

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0. Phonemes and Alphabet


0.1. Vowels

0.2. Consonants

0.3. Alphabet

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0.1. Vowels


All Laz dialects have five vowel phonemes: i, e, a, o and u.

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0.2. Consonants


The number of consonant phonemes in Laz varies according to the dialects. 38 letters (including 3 digraphs) are necessary to write all laz consonant phonemes.  


Table of Laz consonant phonemes





A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

stops

nasals

voiced and voiceless

m


n [ŋ]



plosives

voiceless

non-ejectives

p


t


ky [ki]

k



ejectives

p’


t’


ky’ [ki’]

k’



voiced

b


d


gy [gi]

g [g]



affricates

voiceless

non-ejectives



3 [ts]

ç [t∫]





ejectives



3’ [ts’]

ç’ [t∫’]





voiced



z* [dz]

c [d3]





non-stops

fricatives

voiceless

non-ejectives


f

s

ş [∫]



x [χ]

h

ejectives







x’ [χ’]


voiced


v

z

j [3]



ğ [γ]


approximants

voiced

[w]



r

y [j]




lateral approximant

voiced




l






A : Bilabials B : Labiodentals C : Alveolars D : Postalveolars E : Palatovelars F : Velars G : Uvulars H : Glottal


Bilabial approximant [w] is a variant of phoneme /v/.


The phoneme that is represented by “r” is neither a trill nor a flap. It is an approximant consonant. [The Altered document (p. 419) describes a trill variant of this phoneme. We did not meet it.]

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0.3. Alphabet

The Laz alphabet used in this study is shown below. Unlike the Lazoğlu alphabet, it contains only letters which exists in widely commercialized fonts.

A, B, C, Ç, Ç’, D, E, F, G, Gy, Ğ, H, İ, J, K, K’, Ky, Ky’, L, M, N, O, P, P’, R, S, Ş, T, T’, U, V, X, X’, Y, Z, Z*, 3, 3’


Accent signs are not used in Laz. The place of accent in an accentual unity is determined by the constituent morphemes. The accent is much less marked in Laz than in English, German, Italian or Russian.