Revitalization Potential of Middle Turkic Lexicon in the Field of Economics

Abstract

The article provides a comprehensive examination of the historical formation and developmental dynamics of economic terminology in the Kazakh language, with a particular focus on the revitalization of old written (old-bookish) lexical layers. It investigates the origins of trade-economic lexemes rooted in the Old Turkic and Middle Turkic periods, their transmission into the Turkic linguistic system through Arabic-Persian mediation, as well as their revitalization potential within modern Kazakh. The study draws on historical-lexicological evidence, including the impact of economic and cultural interactions along the Silk Road and the use of trade and commercial vocabulary in the works of medieval authors such as Mahmud Kashgari, Abulgazi Bahadur, Rabghuzi, and Ahmedi Gulshahri.

The research traces the semantic evolution of old written units such as deldal ‘intermediary’, mämile ‘transaction’, qazyna ‘treasury’, and pül ‘money; fee’, identifying their current functions within the modern system of economic terminology and revealing the mechanisms and functional potential of their revitalization. Based on data from Termincom.kz and the National Corpus of the Kazakh Language, the study determines the productivity of these lexemes in term formation and their capacity to contribute to the development of new scientific concepts. The necessity of effectively utilizing the internal lexical resources of the Kazakh language is emphasized, with reference to the terminological principles formulated by Yeldes Omaruly and Abduali Kaidar. Furthermore, the article reviews the history of economic dictionaries from the twentieth century to the present, outlining their contribution to the development of Kazakh linguistics.

The findings demonstrate that lexemes belonging to the old written and Middle Turkic layers are actively undergoing revitalization within contemporary Kazakh economic terminology, thereby strengthening their pragmatic load and fulfilling an essential role in the formation of new scientific concepts. The article aims to elucidate the theoretical and practical foundations for expanding the terminological potential of the Kazakh language.

Keywords: Middle Turkic lexicon, old written lexicon, revitalized words, terminology.