G.F. Miller’s dictionary “description of pagan peoples living in Kazan province, such as Cheremis, Chuvash and Votyaks...” as a valuable source for studying the tatar language of the 18th century (based on LingvoDoc material)

This article presents the results of an analysis of three dictionaries by G.F. Miller, which were created in the 18th century and are hosted on the LingvoDoc platform (lingvodoc.ispras.ru). Miller’s manuscript dictionaries from the collection of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents (RSAAD) are introduced into scholarly discourse for the first time. The analysis reveals: 1) in the 18th century, all consonant transitions in the Tatar language had already been completed; 2) at this time, some vowels (known as the Volga region vowels) had not yet completed their transition process, and for [*o] and [*u], this process had not even begun; 3) in the 18th century, dialectal zones were already identified in the Tatar language; 4) the 1791 period Cyrillic-script dictionary differs in innovations from modern Tatar language and Latin-script dictionaries; 5) Latin-script dictionaries are closer to the modern Tatar literary language.