ON THE INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL ETHNONYM OF THE ABORIGINES-TURKICS OF WESTERN SIBERIA (SIBERIAN TATARS)

This article highlights the origin of the West-Siberian Turkic ethnonyms of Siberian Tatars. Studies of the latest decades allow us to concretize many questions about the origin of the Siberian Tatars. The data from various sciences give grounds to assert that the main core of these groups were Turkic tribes. The background of the article deals with the fact that Siberian Tatars by their origin goes back to the Turks of Sayano-Altai, who came to the Middle Irtysh region in the VII–VIII centuries, and the Kipchaks –the Turkic people who migrated here from the southern steppes in the X-XI centuries. The original inhabitants of Western Siberia were the Ob Ugrians –the ancestors of the modern Khanty and Mansi. The evolution of these ethnonyms and their relevance in the construction of the Siberian Tatars’ identity are examined through an analysis that draws on historical documents, linguistic studies, and ethnographic research.While conducting the research, the authors employed sampling tactics, etymological investigations, primary source analysis, ethnolinguistic studies, comparative historical procedures, and diachronic analyses.Based on the influential writings of well-known Turkologists and dialectologists, the study’s methodological framework was developed. The research’s findings assert that although the name «Siberian Tatars»unifies, it also captures the intricate interactionof social, linguistic, and historical elements that have influenced the community’s development. The study concludes that researching the internal and external ethnonyms of the indigenous Turkic peoples of Western Siberia –in particular, the Siberian Tatars—offers insightful knowledge into the processes of identity formation and cultural adaptation. Prior to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Siberian Tatars identified both internally and externally with the ethnonym «nugai».