The Concept “Turkic Dialects” in the middle Ages

Anotace: The paper studies the concept of “Turkic dialects” in the historical language monuments of the Turkic people. The purpose of the study is to determine the history of the existence and formation of the concept “Turkic dialects” as the primary term in Turkic studies. The definition of this concept is a topical issue for Turkology in general. To observe the concept “Turkic dialects” in the XII-XIV centuries, there existed several dictionaries, in the XV-XVII centuries, there were neither dictionaries nor written sources that would allow presenting the concept “Turkic dialects” in all detail. The article notes that this period covers the times when the process of formation of modern Turkic languages was going on. In the study, comparative and historical-comparative methods of linguistics were used. The source of the research is ancient Turkic dictionaries. In conclusion, it should be noted that the dialect-speaking complex that formed the Turkic languages was formed precisely at the end of the Middle Ages. Therefore, it is possible to “restore” the picture of the dialect-speaking complex representing the dialects of the Turkic language of the 15-17th centuries, especially the “sketches” of the modern Turkic languages based on the dialectological panorama of today’s Turkic languages.