The Lakai and Their Language

Abstract

The Lakai are a Turkish community living in the central and southern regions of the Republic of Tajikistan and in the northern regions of Afghanistan. In addition, Lakais exist in some parts of Pakistan and Iran. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Lakais, who were given large plateaus, engaged in husbandry in the Transoxiana region. Until the rebellion, the Lakais were attached to the Emirate of Bukhara. In the 1920's, the Lakais joined into the independence movements. However, like other ethnic groups, Lakais were exiled. These independence movements, including the one with Enver Pasha, were unsuccessful. According to Laqay Åvåzi journal published in Koktash near Dushanbe city of Tajikistan, the number of Lakais today is more than 500 thousand people, and their language is in danger of extinction. To date, some studies have been done about the origin and language of the Lakai. In these studies, hypotheses have been asserted relating the Lakai are descended from Turkish communities such as Kyrgyz, Kazakh, Karakalpak and Uzbek, and sometimes they are affiliated to theTurkish communitiesin South Siberia.In these hypotheses, the names of the tribes, places and water, and the seals on the horses were compared and various inferences have been made. In some studies, it is stated that the Lakai language has characteristics peculiar to Kazakh, and in others it is indicated that the language is influenced by Uzbek. As a result of the research on vocabulary, it was influenced by Persian and Tajik. However, there is no extensive study on the Lakai language. In this article, phonetic and morphological characteristics of the Lakai dialect are emphasized and a new language classification is proposed.