and
Acts of the Apostles in Lak, 2019 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, P. K. Uslar compiled a textbook on Lak grammar titled
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'." Ever since
Dagestan was part of the
Soviet Union 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. 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 of
Kumukh. This city should not be confused with the
Kumyk ethnic group, a
Turkic people also present in the
Caucasus. Lak has the following dialects: Kumukh, Vitskhi, Arakul, Balkhar, Shadni, Shalib, Vikhli, Kuli, and Kaya. Initially Lak by lexicon was found to be close to
Dargin 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. ==Phonology==