ABSTRACT
In Chapter I I have sketched in broad outline the history of the Turkish tribes from the earliest times down to the early middle ages. The next task is to attempt, on the basis of that history, to reconstruct the history of the Turkish languages. Such a reconstruction can only be tentative; I have no means of proving that it is accurate, and perhaps it is not. But there is, so far as I know, nothing inconsistent between this reconstruction and the evidence in our possession, and it will have to do until something better can be produced.
