Dialectology and Lexical Relationships of the Turkish Languages in Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk

This article scientifically analyzes the dialectological and lexical relationships of the 11th-century Turkic languages based on Mahmud Qashqari’s work Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk. The phonetic, morphological, and semantic features of the Karluk, Kipchak, Oghuz, and other Turkic dialects mentioned in the work are compared, and their territorial distribution at that time, historical and ethnolinguistic features are determined. The study sheds light on the internal structural connections, common roots, and differential signs between Turkic languages through a comprehensive classification of lexical units in the work Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk and their division into semantic areas. The consistent continuity of dialectal explanations given by Qashqari in the current system of Turkic languages is also shown. This article allows us to evaluate Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk not only as a historical dictionary, but also as one of the oldest dialectological sources of Turkic languages.