Who are Laz people? I am a Laz! / Ma Lazi Vore - PART I

Hello guys!

I want to briefly talk about Laz people and give some trivial information about them. Since it is not a huge ethnic group in terms of population, most of you may have never heard of it.

Location: There is a strong belief among Turkish people that almost all the people in the whole Blacksea Region are Laz. However in the contrary of this popular mislead belief, Laz people are majorly living in the small area in norhteast Blacksea, as pointed out in the map below.

Wikipedia

Language: Laz people have their own unique language just like any other nation which is called Lazuri/ Lazca There is also a popular belief that Lazca is not a language but a ''funny'' accent of Turkish. This belief is one of the most irritating things in life for a Laz like me. I've spent countless hours lecturing my friends on how Laz have their own language and that it is not an accent of Turkish. The funny part is that Turkish and Laz share no similarities in common other than a few vocabulary which has passed onto Lazca after the invasion of northeast blacksea by Turks (around 1450's). They have different grammatical structures, totally different vocabulary, and most importantly different phonetic features.

Lazca.org

Here is a video of Laz people speaking, with Turkish subtitles. Just to help you to have an idea of how it sounds:

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Hope you've enjoyed reading this, as much as I've enjoyed writing this. I will make another part where I will try to give informations about Laz Culture and History. Thank you!