Traditions of compiling bilingual dictionaries for turkic peoples

Abstract

Dictionaries are means to reflect the culture of the society, its national unique features, particulars of its life and activities. A special stress is made in this article on the issue of emerging bilingual dictionaries for Turkic peoples, their structure, social and cultural functions. As it was highlighted many times in academic literature, bilingual dictionaries serve as practical aids both for studying another language and for obtaining contrastive information. The paper draws special attention to research of development of Tatar bilingual dictionaries (especially Tatar-Russian and Russian-Tatar lexicographic sources) as one of representatives of the Turkic world; the structure, methods and means of compiling dictionaries. The material demonstrates the continuity in the Turkic lexicography that was founded in the first sources and has been in place up till now. The basic methods in the research are the observation method and comparative method, and based on their application, it was discovered that bilingual dictionaries for Turkic peoples were sources of contrastive information. The material represented is the first experience of showing mental qualities of Turkic peoples, including the Tatar people, documented as lexical units in bilingual dictionaries that provide an objective assessment of mastering of the sociocultural competence by the user. Results of the research promote an active use of bilingual dictionaries for studying Turkic languages for the purpose of diagnostics of levels of mastering the language, and for exposure of information on Turkic peoples living in different countries and being neighbors to many other peoples.