Turkic is one of the world's major language families, comprising a high
number of distinct languages and varieties that display remarkable
similarities and notable differences. Written by a leading expert in the
field, this landmark work provides an unrivalled overview of multiple
features of Turkic, covering structural, functional, historical,
sociolinguistic and literary aspects. It presents the history and
cultures of the speakers, structures, and use of the whole set of
languages within the family, including Turkish, Azeri, Turkmen, Tatar,
Kazakh, Uzbek, and Uyghur, and gives a comprehensive overview of
published works on Turkic languages, large and small. It also provides
an innovative theoretical framework, employing a unified terminology and
transcription, to give new insights into the Turkic linguistic type.
Requiring no previous knowledge of the Turkic languages, it will be
welcomed by both general readers, as well as academic researchers and
students of linguistic typology, comparative linguistics, and Turkic
studies.