"Folk Tails of Altai" and a name category in Altai Turkish (Thesis-text-transcription-name index)

Altai Turkish, which had been exposed to Russian as a dominant language, and had been under its influence for many long years, with its diminishing number of speakers each passing day, is one of the Turkic dialects in jeopardy. A language's death is also the death of the cultural values that have been amassed for hundreds of years and have become attached to that language. Altai Turkish is of vital importance in terms of accommodating Turkish's archaic elements and protecting Turkish cultural heritage due to the geographic conditions under which Altai Turks had lived. The aims of this study are to contribute to the research of Altai Turkish, which despite consisting of a small group of speakers among other Turkic dialects, is significant for the transfer of form, context and culture; to provide for the enrichment of the Altai Turkish vocabulary with the Index section; to serve as a source for further research that can set light to Altai culture with the delivery of folk tails. In the study, the titles related to the name category of Altai Turkish have been examined, and examples have been shown in relation to this category from the studied texts. Name category is handled under the titles of plural suffix, possessive suffix, case endings, and name construction; in addition, these titles have been subjected to diachronic analysis in order to show their position in historic process much better. In the Index section, the names, which are our area of study are included with their meanings from the text next to them. Altai folk tails are translated to Turkish, and during this translation, in order for the texts to be compatible with their genre, a tale style of narration is used. The study will contribute to the Altai Turkish vocabulary, grammar, its literature and culture through tales, and the collective study of Siberian Turkic dialects' grammar. KEYWORDS: Altai Turkish, transcription, name category, folk tales, index