The Study of Mahmud Kashgari's Work "Devonu Lugotit Turk" In German Linguistics

Abstract

This article explores the linguistic, cultural, and encyclopedic significance of Mahmud Kashgari’s seminal work Devonu Lugotit Turk ("Compendium of the Turkic Languages"). As one of the earliest and most comprehensive dictionaries of the Turkic world, the Devon not only documents over 9,000 lexical units but also offers a linguistic map of the 11th-century Turkic-speaking world. The study highlights the functional-semantic, areal, and linguocultural dimensions of the text, positioning it as an invaluable resource for the study of historical Turkic languages, dialectology, ethnography, and intercultural communication. The work has been instrumental in forming the foundation of comparative-historical Turkology and continues to serve as a key source for understanding the lexical and cultural identity of Turkic peoples. Although the Devon has been widely studied, a comprehensive monographic analysis of its linguistic features remains an open and significant field of research in modern linguistics.