Compilation traditions of bilingual dictionaries for Turkish villages

Abstract

Dictionaries are a means of reflecting the culture of society, its unique national characteristics, details of its life and activities. This article places special emphasis on the issue of emerging bilingual dictionaries for Turkish peoples, their structure, social and cultural functions. As highlighted many times in academic literature, bilingual dictionaries serve as practical aids both for studying another language and for obtaining verified information. The document draws particular attention to research into the development of bilingual Tatar dictionaries (especially Tatar-Russian and Russian-Tatar lexicographical sources) as one of the representatives of the Turkish world; the structure, methods, and means of compiling dictionaries. The material demonstrates the continuity in the Turkish lexicography that was founded on the first sources and that has been in force until now. The basic research methods are the observation method and the comparative method, and based on their application, bilingual dictionaries for Turkish peoples were found to be contrasting sources of information. The material represented is the first experience to show the mental qualities of Turkic peoples, including Tatars, documented as lexical units in bilingual dictionaries that provide an objective assessment of the user's domain of sociocultural competence. The research results promote the active use of bilingual dictionaries to study Turkish languages with the aim of diagnosing the levels of language proficiency and to expose the information about the Turkic peoples living in different countries and being neighbors of many other peoples.