Laki language

Laki (له‌کی, لکی) is a vernacular that consists of two dialects; Pish-e Kuh Laki and Posht-e Kuh Laki. Laki is considered a Kurdish dialect, by most linguists and is spoken chiefly in the area between Khorramabad and Kermanshah by about one million native speakers. Laki is spoken in Iran and in Turkey. In Iran, the isogloss of Laki spans from Khorramabad to east of Kermanshah, from Holeylan to Harsin. It's the main language in Selseleh, Delfan, Kuhdasht and Khawa counties in Lorestan Province, including Oshtorinan District of Borujerd County, and also around Malayer and Nahavand in Hamadan Province. In Kermanshah Province, it is the main language in Harsin County, Kangavar County, Sahneh County, and in the southern halves of Kermanshah County and Eslamabad-e Gharb County. There are also Laki enclaves in Khorasan, Kerman and around 100,000 speakers in 70 villages around Kelardasht in Mazandaran. In Gilan province, Laki is spoken by around 1,500 people. In Turkey, the language is spoken by the Şêxbizin tribe, scattered around the country. The classification of Laki as a sub-dialect of Southern Kurdish or as a fourth dialect of Kurdish is unsettled, but the differences between Laki and the other Southern Kurdish dialects are minimal. However, linguist Fattah argues that Laki cannot be considered a dialect of Southern Kurdish since Laki is ergative and is thus a fourth Kurdish language. Other linguists argue that Laki is closely related to Kurdish but refrain from deciding its place among the Northwestern Iranian languages. Laki has also been classified as a Luri dialect, but speakers of Luri claim that Laki is "difficult or impossible to understand". Linguist Shahsavari points that Laki is sometimes seen as 'a transitional dialect between Kurdish and Luri'. Two significant groups of Laki oral literature are religious oral literature and astronomical literature. The first group includes Shia oral hymns and Yarsan songs, while the second gives an expansive and colorful account of Laki narratives of astronomical events and their consequences, the power of the sun, moon, the week and tales on the stars.