Lak people (Dagestan)

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The Laks (лак in Lak, лакцы in Russian) are an ethnic group numbering about 156,500, of which approximately 140,000 live in Dagestan, historically mostly in the central mountainous parts. In 1944 a part of them were moved to the plains to replace the deported Chechen population. They speak the Lak language which has at least 7 different dialects. It was written with the Arabic alphabet from the 15th century until 1928. Then it was written with the Latin alphabet for about a decade. Since 1938, the Cyrillic alphabet has been used.