Native to Iran Ethnicity Laks ISO 639-3 lki | Region Central Zagros Native speakers 1 million (2000) | |
Language family Indo-European
Indo-Iranian
Iranian
Western Iranian
Northwestern Iranian I
Laki | ||
Laki pronunciation (لەکی; Lekî) is a speech variety that is either considered an independent Iranian language, a dialect of Lurish or of Southern Kurdish. Lexical similarity with Khorramabadi Luristani is 78%, with Persian is 70%, and with Northern Luri is 69%.
Laki is presently spoken in the areas south of Hamadan and including the towns of Nahavand, Tuyserkan, Nursbad, Ilam, Gilan, and Pahla (Pehle), as well as the countryside in the districts of Horru, Selasele, Silakhur, and the northern Aleshtar in western Iran.
The syntax and vocabulary of Laki have been profoundly altered by Lurish language, a Southwest Iranic language. The basic grammar and verb systems of Laki are, like other Northwestern Iranian languages, especially the Zaza–Gorani languages, clearly Northwest Iranian. This relationship is further affirmed by remnants in Laki of the Kurdish grammatical hallmark, the ergative construction. Despite this, Shahsavari based on his linguistics and semantics characteristics concluded that Laki is obviously different from Kurdish.