Talk:Lavash

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• Raffi kojian-lavash-103115742.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 04:51, 14 February 2026 (UTC)

Restored origins

I have restored the place of origin information and all sources attributed, as this was removed without any discussion. I have also removed the recent "Azernews" source because the author seems to neither have credibility nor qualifications to be considered reliable. KhndzorUtogh (talk) 08:11, 22 May 2026 (UTC)

I apologize for making these changes without a discussion; I should have been more careful, especially since it is a contentious topic. But I'm not sure what you mean when you say information was removed—I did not remove any information; I added more information. The statement that you have restored lists Armenia and Iran. My edit included both of these, as well as a few other countries. This reflects a sourced statement that I added to the history section, and I think it is more neutral.

If you think the "place of origin" statement needs to include citations, I disagree. I believe this is WP:Citation overkill for two reasons: information that is in the body does not need a citation in the lead, and most of the sources cited did not actually verify the information. (Most of the sources are irrelevant; they make no claim about the origin. Serna-Saldivar 2012 is the only one that says it originated in Armenia. Karizaki 2017 is the only one that says it originated in Iran; however, it attributes the claim to the Encyclopedia of Jewish History, but I checked that encyclopedia and it DOES NOT verify the statement.) These citations are not adequate for verification of the narrow statement. Therefore, we should include the broader statement (listing more countries), or we should remove the statement entirely.

As for AzerNews, I think you are right. I added the source without adequately assessing its reliability; I only checked that it was a legitimate publication, without checking that it was considered credible. It is not reliable enough for historical information, so I should not have included it. Thanks for pointing this out. — Vigilant Cosmic Penguin 🐧 (talk | contribs) 21:22, 22 May 2026 (UTC)

The origin information you changed to include additional countries does not have the WP:DUE weight that Armenia/Iran has; hence I restored it. KhndzorUtogh (talk) 14:24, 25 May 2026 (UTC)

Can you explain why you think including Armenia and Iran is due weight? As I explained above, I don't think there are any reliable sources for the Iranian origin, and there is only one source supporting the Armenian origin, but this is from a food scientist, not a historian. From my research, the only historian who lists a region of origin is Gil Marks, who states the origin as the Middle East.
Perhaps it would be best to simply list the region of origin as "West Asia", as this would not place any undue weight. — Vigilant Cosmic Penguin 🐧 (talk | contribs) 20:15, 25 May 2026 (UTC)

Ken Albala, Darra Goldstein, and Sergio Román Othón Serna Saldívar are all food historians and Peter Reinhart is a respected educator. KhndzorUtogh (talk) 06:47, 26 May 2026 (UTC)

Neither Albala nor Goldstein states that lavash originated in Armenia. Serna-Saldivar does state this, but he is a food scientist, not a historian, so he is not situationally reliable. Reinhardt makes the statement, "Lavash, though usually called Armenian flatbread, also has Iranian roots." This does not quite say that either of these countries are the origin; it's a slightly different statement, and we would need a source that makes a much more direct statement to include it here. — Vigilant Cosmic Penguin 🐧 (talk | contribs) 08:03, 26 May 2026 (UTC) — Vigilant Cosmic Penguin 🐧 (talk | contribs) 08:03, 26 May 2026 (UTC)

Webster's Dictionary calls lavash of Armenian origin, as does the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. KhndzorUtogh (talk) 07:34, 27 May 2026 (UTC)

This statement would need a secondary source that is reliable for historical information. A dictionary is not written by historians. — Vigilant Cosmic Penguin 🐧 (talk | contribs) 07:45, 27 May 2026 (UTC) — Vigilant Cosmic Penguin 🐧 (talk | contribs) 07:45, 27 May 2026 (UTC)

Looks like you contested 2/5 sources only, and some dictionaries can be reliable sources. This essay implies some dictionaries are reliable. KhndzorUtogh (talk) 06:11, 31 May 2026 (UTC)

I don't understand your reading of the linked essay. I note the part of the essay that says dictionary definitions are not necessarily precise; I believe the dictionaries at question here did not put too much thought into the specific detail of the origin. And, as I mention above, most of the five sources are irrelevant; they make no claim about the origin. — Vigilant Cosmic Penguin 🐧 (talk | contribs) 08:44, 31 May 2026 (UTC)

• Sergio O. Serna-Saldivar (2012). Cereal Grains: Laboratory Reference and Procedures Manual. CRC Press. p. 217.

I’ve yet to hear a policy based explanation how this source is unacceptable. It passes WP:RS pretty clearly; a reliably published secondary source written by an academic no less. Please explain to me which policy on Wikipedia says this source is unacceptable here. KhndzorUtogh (talk) 06:42, 7 June 2026 (UTC)

I addressed this above; Serna-Saldivar is a food scientist, not a historian. He's a leading expert within his area of expertise—the chemistry of corn products such as tortillas—but this is a very different subject. Per WP:Context matters: "Information provided in passing by an otherwise reliable source or information that is not related to the principal topics of the publication may not be reliable; editors should cite sources focused on the topic at hand where possible." — Vigilant Cosmic Penguin 🐧 (talk | contribs) 17:04, 7 June 2026 (UTC) — Vigilant Cosmic Penguin 🐧 (talk | contribs) 17:04, 7 June 2026 (UTC)

As for the turkish translation

@Boublub thou said „for clarification“ when adding the turkish translation, but what does it clarify and what does it really add? By that logic we could also add the kazakh, kyrgyz, turkmen, uzbek and other languages, the translation section is to show the translation of relevant languages of countries where the dish originates, like here it being Armenia and Iran (with there also being proposed etymologies of lavash coming from proto armenian, or it being transmitted to most languages through Persian) Klöterisch (talk) 13:03, 23 July 2026 (UTC) blocked sock of Əzərbəyəniləri Aintabli (talk) 23:09, 24 July 2026 (UTC)

I disagree with your statement that Turkish is irrelevant; the etymology section mentions that the word partly entered English from Turkish. That being said, I think the best option is to remove the transliterations from the lead paragraph, to avoid any bias. The same information is already in the etymology section, and its inclusion in the lead sentence is a bit cluttered. According to MOS:FOREIGNEQUIV, this means it should not be in the lead. — Vigilant Cosmic Penguin 🐧 (talk | contribs) 19:32, 23 July 2026 (UTC)

Add caucasus beside "west asia"

South caucasus is a transcontinental region whose classification as asia is up to debate. The article refers to the lavash bread as "west asian" and of Georgian as an Asian language. These should be reformulated in a precise way such as using "caucasus", "south caucasus", "south caucasus and neighboring regions" instead of the inaccurate and overly broad mentions of "asia" "west asia". The countries lavash is from, especially Armenia, but Georgia too (arguably turkey too) are often considered not even in Asia at all as they are in the council of europe, part of the "eastern europe and central asia" or "eastern and central europe" eurovox region and of the European union "eastern european partnership". Have the article adopt a neutral point of view by using precise terms such as south Caucasus instead of, or alongside, imprecise and up for debate terms such as Asia or "west asia". ~2026-43459-83 (talk) 12:02, 1 November 2026 (UTC)

Similar names are used in many Asian languages > Similar names are used in many neigboring languages

Region or state : West Asia > Region or state : South Caucasus, (turkey), (iran)

lavash is widespread in many parts of Asia between Turkey and Kashmir > lavash is widespread in many parts of Eurasia between Turkey, the Caucasus and Kashmir

Lavash is widespread across West and Central Asian cuisine, > Lavash is widespread across south Caucasian, iranian, turkish and Central Asian cuisine

(Important to note, not neccessary to write in the article but for the argument : "Lavash, the preparation, meaning and appearance of traditional bread as an expression of culture in Armenia" is inscribed to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage under the Europe and North America region (as is already mentioned in the article), so the whole artice mistakenly identifying it as a uniquely "Asian" food product is in direct contradiction to the UNESCO classification, and is also not neutral as it implies that the transcontinental/debatably non asian countries especially Armenia/Georgia are less central to Lavash culture than the purely Asian ones such as Iran ) As written on the Wikipedia article of the UNESCO, the position of the UNESCO is : "The Transcaucasian States of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, and Russian Federation are included in the Europe and North America Region." https://whc.unesco.org/en/eur-na/. Lavash bread is classified to the UNESCO cultural heritage as a cultural practice of the Europe and North America Region, yet the current Wikipedia article sometimes implies Lavash as an exclusively Asian bread. ~2026-43459-83 (talk) 12:23, 1 November 2026 (UTC)