ON THE VOCABULARY OF PLANTS AND THEIR ORIGIN IN LAZ DIALECT

Abstract

The paper discusses not only the names of plants that are not known to scientific literature but also the origin of some plants. Laz people, similar to inhabitants in other parts of Georgia, utilized herbaceous plants for various purposes. There is a distinction between wild and cultivated plants, and it is scientifically established that the ancestor of every cultivated plant is its wild species. Cultivation and gradual improvement of plants were ongoing processes, and there was also a counter-process where cultivated plants could revert to a wild state. Cultivation or wildness of plants is an extremely important process of special value for the history of agrobotany and natural science, as well as for the history of language and plant names. Cultivation of plants not only provided variety, but it also found its reflection in language and created synonyms according to the differences. Like other parts of Georgia, the vocabulary of plants of Laz dialect is characterized by an abundance of synonyms.