ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the major features of the Kipchak varieties spoken between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries in the south Russian steppe and in the Near East. The sources identified as Middle Kipchak are of heterogeneous origin. The collection of Middle Kipchak texts only reflect various Kipchak dialects; it also contains Oghuz and other elements, which sometimes differ significantly from the Kipchak material and are sometimes difficult to distinguish from it. One source written in Roman script has become known as Codex Cumanicus, compiled from the late thirteenth century to the first third of the fourteenth century. The Arabic script can clearly represent the distinctions between rounded and unrounded vowels and between high and low unrounded vowels. The theoretical introductory sections in Mamluk sources frequently use Arabic linguistic terms to describe the quality of Turkic sounds that differ from Arabic ones.
