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Old 13th July 2022, 01:14 AM   #20
ariel
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
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[QUOTE=Interested Party;273367]I have enjoyed the linguistics and the history lesson. I hadn't realized the Gurians and the Mengrelian peoples were Laz. So Laz were a Circassian people? Or were the terms interchangeable? QUOTE]

No , they were separate, but likely very close. As I mentioned already, Mingrelian and Laz languages were just mutual dialects.
Around 15 century unified Georgian kingdom collapsed and on its ruins separate small kingdoms and principalities were establishes: Kartli, Kakheti, Imereti, Megrelian, Gurian etc. Perhaps that was the reason for the appearance of “ nationalities”, although there are obvious linguistic differences between several.

Last edited by Battara; 13th July 2022 at 03:05 AM. Reason: for continuity
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