The
Laz language (ლაზური ნენა,
lazuri nena; ,
lazuri ena, or ჭანური ენა,
ç̌anuri ena, also
chanuri ena; ) is a
Kartvelian language spoken by the
Laz people on the southeastern shore of the
Black Sea. It is estimated that there are around 20,000 native speakers of Laz in
Turkey, in a strip of land extending from Melyat to the Georgian border (officially called
Lazistan until 1925), and about 2,000 in
Georgia.