The Lak language is a Northeast Caucasian language

Northeast Caucasian languages

The Northeast Caucasian languages constitute a language family spoken in the Russian republics of Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, northern Azerbaijan, and in northeastern Georgia, as well as in diaspora populations in Russia, Turkey, and the Middle East...

 forming its own branch within this family. It is the language of the Lak people

Lak people (Dagestan)

The Laks, self-designation Lak, are an indigenous people of Dagestan, speaking the Lak language. There are about 170,000 ethnic Laks.-History:An ancient polity on the Lak territory was the principality of Gumik...

 from the Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n autonomous republic of Dagestan

Dagestan

The Republic of Dagestan is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and the largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea...

, where it is one of six standardized languages. It is spoken by about 157,000 people.

In the past it was also referred to as Gazi-Qumuq (Гьази-Кьумукь), which was transliterated

Transliteration

Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...

 via Russian

Russian language

Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

 as Kazi-Kumukh (Кази-Кумук) or Kasi-Kumukh (Каси-Кумук), in which Gazi or Kasi means 'warrior for faith'.