Turkish Forum

Tag: Turkish

  • Challenges of Turkish

    Challenges of Turkish

    As Graham Howe says on Quora; If your native language is English or one of the other Indo-European languages, Turkish does indeed present a number of challenges. For example:

    • A completely different sentence structure to most Western languages: Turkish is an agglutinative language – this means that, whereas in English we form sentences by placing single words in the appropriate order to convey our meaning, Turkish adds suffixes to the end of words, sometimes resulting in horrendous-looking long words. For example: ev = house; evim = my house; evimde – in my house; evimdeki = which is in my house; evimdekiler – the ones which are in my house; evimdekilerin – of the ones who are in my house; evimdekilerin annesi – the mother of the ones that are in my house.
    • Vowel harmony: this means that words can contain only ‘front vowels’ (e, i, ö or ü) or ‘back vowels’ (a, ı, o or u), and these vowels cannot be mixed. Although this rule has countless exceptions, due to the number of words borrowed from other languages, it is fairly rigidly applied when it comes to grammatical endings: geldim – I came; aldım – I took; buldum – I found; gördüm – I saw, where -dim/-dım/-dum/-düm is the first person single past tense ending, the vowel changing according to the last vowel in the verb root.

    On the plus side, once one has learnt the sentence structure, the cases and the verb endings, Turkish is a fairly logical language with only a handful of irregular verbs and noun cases.

  • Am I speaking Turkish here?

    Am I speaking Turkish here?

    Did you understand what your Italian friend meant when he/she told you: “Am I speaking Turkish here?”

    When in Italy during a conversation a person can’t get their point across they attribute ironically the resistance of the interlocutor to lack of understading of what has been said, and Turkish here stands for an incomprehensible language. The origin of the idiom is clearly due to the contacts among people around the Mediterranean and the difficulties often arising in the practices of trade (particularly in the Levant). This clearly shows when the sentence is heard in the same context but Turkish is replaced by Greek and Arabic (other languages commonly spoken in the Levant).

    Notable exception is the phrase “Do I speak Ostrogoth?”, which means the same but is clearly suggestive of the disconcert and confusion of the Italians after the fall of the Roman Empire, when Germanic populations began to spread uninvited in the country.

    Source: Giorgio Bellini from Italy

  • Malta Yok!

    Malta Yok!

    ‘Malta yok effendi’, which stands for ‘Malta does not exist.’

    “I was shocked upon hearing it in a history class in Israel” says one of the comment writers with the nickname skatanic.

    But why in Israel? Then comes this tweet from Lebanon:

    malta yok twit

    Does “Malta yok” really mean “forget about it” in Turkish? Noting among the many Malta-based proverbs and sayings in the Turkish Dictionary of Sayings, such as “Malta eriği” (Maltese plum = loquat), “Malta humması” (Maltese fever = brucellosis), “Malta palamudu” (Maltese bonito = pilot fish), etc., there doesn’t appear to be the term “Malta yok”.

    It seems to be a saying unique to Levantine Arabic, from which it probably entered Israeli Hebrew, with a folk etymology to follow.

    But how did they get there? There are several points of view. The predominant seems to be as follows.

    According to a story, it was the response of an Admiral to the Sultan (Süleyman), who having been sent with a grand army to conquer Malta, failed to do so. 

    map of malta haritasi

    At one time, during the Ottoman Empire, the Sultan dispatched a naval force against Malta. After some time, however, the fleet returned without completing its objective and the Turkish admiral stated ‘Malta Yok’. This is due to the inability of the admiral to read a map of the era. And as if that wasn’t enough, the excuse also came up. According to the admiral, when he went to the charter room to plot a course for Malta, he ordered his adjutant to bring him coffee. So, as he enjoyed his coffee, he moved the cup on the map and, accidently, it covered Malta. As ridiculous as it sounds, it is better than the other excuse that the devil moved the island to another point on the map for the admiral not to be able to spot it.

    Arab historian Nicola Ziyadeh, who passed away 99 years old in June 27 2007, was Eyyâm fî Malta, where he touched upon the phrase “Malta yok”. In his telling, the Sublime Porte receives news that there is an island called Malta in the Mediterranean which could cause great danger unless it is captured. The admiral then is instructed to take over the island post, haste. However, the admiral cannot discover this island even though he travels East, west, north and south across the Mediterranean. He writes to the grand vizier “Malta yok”.

    Another source recontextualized this to the answer the captain gives not for being unable to find the island but for being unable to capture it.

    The Estonian historian Juri Lina, who wrote a book about freemasonry Les Architectes de la déception — l’histoire secrète de la franc-maçonnerie starts a chapter with “Malta yok”. According to the author, the events of 1565 unfolded as follows: the emperor commands his navy to attack the Christian island of Malta. Storms and bad weather conditions stop the navy from reaching the island. The hopeless captain covers up the island of Malta with the wax from a candle he grabs. And then with a victorious air, he turns to his second mate and exclaims, “There is no Malta!” Before turning the fleet to Crete.

    Sources:

    https://www.quora.com/How-did-the-Malta-yok-culture-tradition-of-unabashed-denials-and-lies-develop-in-the-Turkish-people

    https://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/pinker.pdf

  • Is there anyone who can speak Turkish?

    Is there anyone who can speak Turkish?

    Biraz. (very little!)

    Seriously, though, Turkish is a language well worth studying. Wrapping your brain around a completely different syntax will definitely stretch it! The grammar is heavenly, since the parts of speech snap neatly into place like Lego blocks, always in the same order. The vocabulary, tho, is from the “other” place! Don’t count on finding too many cognates.

    Still, the Latin-based alphabet is easy to learn. And it’s a lot more phonetic than English (let alone French!)

    And there are 80 million or so citizens of the Turkish Republic, and nearly that many people who speak languages in the same family. The Turks have a genius for friendship, and are heirs to an imperial culinary tradition.

    Look into a local university’s “language partners program” to find sharp and motivated tutors. Help them with their English, and let them introduce you to their world.

    Studying Turkish this way is a great home school family project, BTW. Your children will learn that the world does NOT divide into white hats and black turbans.

    And your Turkish friends will learn that, contrary to what Hollywood preaches, there ARE Americans who take faith and family seriously.

    Thomas Smedley

  • Origins of Ak & Kara

    Origins of Ak & Kara

    In Turkish, what’s the difference between ak/kara and siyah/beyaz? What is their origin? How can they be used?

    Siyah (black),

    Beyaz (white),

    Mavi (Blue),

    are not original Turkish words.

    Turkish originals were/are:

    Black: Kara

    White: Ak

    Blue: Gök

    Foreign loanwords exclusively used to mean colors, nothing else.

    Turkish words can be used as adjectives, to define color, but also to give meaning other than colors.

    “Black Friday” can be translated only as “Kara Cuma”, but not “Siyah Cuma”.

    Because the “black” in “Black Friday” is not related with color.

    Original Turkish words have deep meanings, probably loanwords also have deep meanings in their respective languages, but they are exclusively used for colors in Turkish.

    Turkish original words have deeper meaning and meaningful connection with other words.

    *

    For example:

    Blue: Gök

    Gök also means Sky, because sky is blue. Gök also means “heavens”, because “skies” are “heavens”.

    (Even I can claim that, in Western and especially in Hollywood film culture it is believed that “dead people goes to heaven as stars” has its roots in Turkic/Hunnic culture. Because in Turkic belief , “uçmak” (to fly away) is used, to say somebody is passed away. You can fly into sky, not into ground. I don’t know if there is not such belief in Semitic/Indian/Aryan/Greek culture. There is “underworld” in these cultures)

    *

    Green: Yeşil

    The word for “Green” in Turkish (YEŞİL) is a miraculous word. If linguists and scientists tried to devise/produce a word, which connects “Green”, “Water”, “Life”, “to Live” “Greenary” “Spring/Summer” and “Age (length of “life”)”, they could not devise a better word.

    Old form of YEŞİL: YAŞIL (Green)

    (Following this pattern: Replacing the original back vowels with front vowels

    Çak-ıç => Çek-iç “hammer”

    Yaş-ıl => Yeş-il “green”)

    Yaş: means “moisturized”/”watered”/”watery”/”wet”.

    Green is YAŞIL/YEŞİL, literal meaning “watery, watered, with water”

    Can we think of a “natural green” without water? Absolutely no.

    Can we think of life, without water? Absolutely no.

    In Turkish, the words for “Water (YAŞ/SU)”, “Green (YEŞİL)” and “Life (YAŞAM)” has same root.

    YAŞA-MAK and YAŞAM: to Live and Life. These words also comes from “water” and therefore related with YEŞİL/green. How meaningful and wonderful connection. Without water, no life can exist. Without water we cannot live, we cannot “stay green/alive”. Any space exploration today looking for life in other planets directly looks for the existence of water. Therefore water-life-green connection in Turkish looks so miraculous.

    And then comes, “age/yaş” (lenght of LIFE). In Turkish, this word also related with “Water (YAŞ/SU)”, “Green (YEŞİL)” and “Life (YAŞAM)” . In Anatolian Turkish, the connection between “Age/yaş” and “green” is forgotten.

    However, age/yaş and green/yeşil is closely related in other Turkish/Turkic languages.

    We ask this question to learn the age of something :

    “How old are you” (Kaç yaşındasın) ?

    In some Turkic languages, question is asked this way, the original way:

    “How many green (season) have you seen? (Kaç yaş/yaz gördün?)”

    In the ancient Turkic culture the age of something/someone was calculated based on how many times they had seen “green season”, which is “yaz”.

    So we see, colors reveal lots of things in original language.Green (yeşil) in Turkish is not just a color name, but it has deep connection with water (su, yaş, ıslak/sulak), life (yaşam, greenary), age (yaş) and summer (yaz). They have same root in Turkish.

    Think of a desert. When you see an oasis, a “green (yeşil)” area in the desert, you automatically know that there is “water (yaş/su)” in that place, and there is “life (yaşam)” in that place.

    I am not aware of any other language, in which all these words “Water (YAŞ/SU)”, “Green (YEŞİL)” and “to live (YAŞA-MAK), “Life (YAŞAM)”, “Summer (YAZ)”, and “age -length of life (YAŞ)” are all related to each other.

    —-

    Note-1: Turkish proper name “Yaşar”, if written with today’s Anatolian Turkish phonology, would be written as “Yeşer”, because of the vowel shift like in yaşıl to yeşil. Because the name Yaşar was given to scrawny, weak babies as a desire/praying by parents for the baby “to live,to get green”.

    Note-2: Word for summer (yaz) also meant “spring” in old Turkish. “Bahar” is a Persian loanword. Probably Ancient Turkics were living in colder regions of the world and they only had 2 seasons, “yaz/summer/green season and kış/winter/non-green season, not 4 seasons)

    The connection between “yaş” and “yaz”: In Northern Branch of Turkic languages, Kıpçak/Kipchak (Kazakh, Kyrgyz) some sound shifts happened. Therefore some basic pronunciation difference arose with Southern and Western (Chaghatay and Oghuz) Turkish. However, there were not strict lines between these dialects. Words with new meaning/concepts are borrowed from each other along with new pronounciation)

    Western : Kipchak

    Baş: bas

    Yaş: yas/yaz

    Kış: kıs

    Beş: bes

    Yüz: jüz (this one lives in Anatolia only in informal pronounciation of numbers ending in ş/ç letters, beş-jüz:500, üç-cüz:300)

    Saç: saş

    Mehmet Uçar

  • AMERICA FILES /// Turkish-US Relations : Strangling Strategy With Tactics

    AMERICA FILES /// Turkish-US Relations : Strangling Strategy With Tactics

    Turkish-US Relations: Strangling Strategy With Tactics

    In the past week, undoubtedly one of the most important matters on the agenda of Turkish politics was U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s visit. Above all else, Biden’s visit was important in terms of evaluating the potential for collaboration between the U.S. and Turkey on Middle Eastern politics in general and, more specifically, on Syria and Iraq, as well as negotiations regarding the various differences of opinion. Discussions on what Biden might have in his dossier had already begun before he arrived. The general idea was that Biden and Turkish officials would discuss the topics of the struggle with DAESH, Turkish-Russian relations, the status of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the structure of the Bashiqa camp, border security and a new train-and-equip program. Indeed, Biden came and met first with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to speak about these topics.However, the other factor that made Biden’s visit interesting and media-focused was the frequency of his visits. Biden only met with the radical opposition, where opposition to Erdoğan is at the center of political discourse, causing many debates. The journalists who attended these meetings gleefully chose to interpret this as a victory won over Erdoğan. The fact that Biden drew attention to the freedom of the press and the freedom of expression in this meeting, where he stressed the message that there must not be capitulations on the freedoms of the press and expression, is significant.

    Notably, the political message behind Biden’s sole acceptance of journalists who oppose Erdoğan as his respondents is obvious. Biden and American decision makers are aware of the administrative fight ongoing in Turkish politics as well as how this fight is reflected in the media. The socio-political opposition representatives Biden met with are those who have made their opposition to Erdoğan an identity, even an obsession. They include those who supported, whether openly or clandestinely, the Gezi protests, the Dec. 17 and Dec. 25 coup attempts on the part of the Gülen Movement and, later, regarding the new struggle instigated by the PKK terror organization against the state for the purpose of bringing Erdoğan’s administration down. Under the headlines of "the freedom of the press" and freedom of expression, at the center of the invisible political struggle therein lies the obstruction of political normalization and the transformation that is occurring with Erdoğan’s leadership. This naked truth is a situation known quite well by the actors who know and recognize Turkey. Of course, Biden and those who arranged his program know this quite well, too.

    So, why did Biden lean toward such a symbolic stance against Erdoğan’s? The reason for this is not the U.S.’s supposed keen interest in Turkey’s problems regarding the freedom of the press. U.S.-Turkish relations have a long past, and modern Turkish history is full of incomparably heavy obstacles to the freedom of expression and the press when compared to today. Within this historical process, we all know that the U.S. did not engage in symbolic intervention in Turkey through rhetoric advocating for the freedom of expression. Another thing we know is that, for the U.S., when its own national interests are the point in question, the U.S. throws the topics of freedom of expression and freedom of the press out the window. However, what is more important is that the U.S. uses the rhetoric of freedom of expression and the freedom of the press in its foreign policy processes in countries that U.S. officials want to convince to take a certain position or to impose a new situation.

    Then, in this case, what is the new position that the U.S. wants to convince Turkey of or that the U.S. wants to impose on Turkey? The U.S.’s main concern is making Turkey more influential in the struggle against DAESH. At this point, the U.S. is asking that Turkey take on much more responsibility in that regard. Despite the fact that Turkey considers DAESH a terrorist organization and is fighting DAESH both inside and outside the country, the U.S. is still asking that Turkey contribute much more.

    The most fundamental issue for the U.S. is that Turkey regards DAESH as the upmost threat and must mobilize its military capacity against it. Another dimension is that, from the U.S.’s perspective, Turkey should not regard the PYD and its armed People’s Protection Units (YPG), which the U.S. sees as the primary ground forces used in the struggle against DAESH, as a threat. Ankara’s main point of concern during this process has been that the PYD is the PKK’s extension in Syria and the guns given to the PYD and YPG are being used in PKK terror attacks in Turkey.

    Davutoğlu and Erdoğan both clearly explained Turkey’s approach to the PKK and the PYD in their meetings with Biden. In response, Biden reaffirmed that the PKK is a terror organization like DAESH; however, the U.S. will work together with the PYD. There is a crucial point that American decision makers must realize. The more successful Turkey is in its struggle against the PKK, the more likely it is to successfully fight against DAESH. During this period, it is paramount to stop giving the PYD, also known as the PKK’s Syrian extension, various tactical realities and privileged positions. U.S. foreign policy makers must stop strangling strategy with tactics.

    [Daily Sabah, January 29, 2016]