Turkish Euphemisms.doc

Turkish Euphemisms

Several months ago, the Turkish advertising world was turned upside-down when the FINDIK TANITIM GRUBU aired a humorous TV ad in which they touted their product (hazelnuts) by using an
invented, new Turkish euphemism.

Euphemism -- a mild, indirect, or vague expression used
in place of a more direct, explicit, or offensive one.
Like: rest-room or water-closet for toilet...

We hesitated to bring it to your attention at the time,
not because of its naughty overtones,
but because we feared it might be a 'flash in the pan'.
Well, it's clear now that it's here to stay --
the TV ad-campaign expanded to include the print medium,
a second TV ad has now been aired,
and there are more in the works.
So, we won't hold back any longer!
Right click the image to 'View' an enlargement...

Starting in the middle of the picture, the ad says:
"A handful of hazelnuts every day is good for you."
Then continuing under the picture...
"They're good for high-blood pressure, for cholesterol, for anemia, for sleeplessness, they give energy, make the skin youthful, strengthen bones and teeth and besides that...[they give you]
sexual potency!"
Pronounced:
ah-gah-nee-ghee nah-gah-nee-ghee

March 2000

The wrong and, the right ands

We don't know about you, but early in our Turkish-language learning-experience, we got hooked on using the Turkish 've' to mean the English 'and' -- at almost every opportunity.

Oh, yes...we do remember, vaguely, something in our text-books about the '-Ip' suffix and the stand-alone 'da' -- but why should we worry about them when 've' was available, and so easy for us to understand and use? Well, here's what one of our favorite Turkish-language advisors, Deniz SarIöz, has to say on the subject:

"Something I am really anal about is the
pathological overuse of the word 've' in Turkish,
which is considered a substitute for the English word 'and' --
due to the frequency of non-Turkish movies on TV with
very very bad translations.
More often than not,
'and' would translate better to Turkish as
'da' or 'de' or as '-Ip, -ip, -up, -üp' --
according to the rule of vowel harmony.
For instance, in the example,
'Mektubu aç ve okuyalIm.'
(Open the letter and let's read it)...
it would be so much more natural
to replace the 've' in the sentence with 'da'."

What Deniz (a native Türk) must mean is that it's
so much more natural for native Türks to do that!
(He hasn't thought about us poor non-natives --
who don't find much that's natural about the Turkish language at all.)

But nevvvermind, his point is well taken. Because, we sure hear 'da' and 'Ip' (and 'ile', by the way) here in the Turkish streets (and in Turkish radio and television programming) a lot more than we hear 've'.

So if you too would like a simple and effective way to sound better in Turkish, then cast out the unnatural-sounding 've' (wherever you can) -- in favor of the native-sounding 'da', 'Ip', and 'ile'...

Examples:
1) Bütün o problemleri unut da zevkine bak.
To translation

2) Her seferinde aynI sey, suçu kendi isler, kolayca kardesinin üstüne yIkIp zeytinyagI gibi üste çIkardI.
To translation

3) Dogu ile (or Doguyla) BatI arasInda uzlasma var.
(There is rapproachment between East and West.)

4) izmir'e uçak ile gidiyorum.
(I'm going to Izmir by plane.)

5) izmir'e uçakla gidiyorum.
(I'm going to Izmir by plane.)

6) izmir'e otobüs ile gidiyorum.
(I'm going to Izmir by bus.)

7) izmir'e otobüsle gidiyorum.
(I'm going to Izmir by bus.)

Turkish Palindromes

We know you know a palindrome when you see one in English...
It's a phrase or sentence that's spelled the same way,
backwards and forwards,
like:
A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!

 

But would you have spotted the following
Turkish palindrome on your own
-- over breakfast next Sunday, as you scanned your Turkish newspaper --
without a little help from your friends here at LPT ???

Ey edip Adanada pide ye!
Hey, go on -- and eat a Turkish pizza in Adana!

Courtesy: Ertan KÜÇÜKYALÇIN, March 2000

Out-loud Word Spelling in Turkish

When you want to get rid of that pesky IRS agent who
keeps calling at your door, how do you do it?
Well, if you're like us,
you crank up the voice a notch and shout,
S as in Scaramouche,
C as in Concertina,
R as in Rhubarb,
A as in Albatross,
and
M as in Mayonnaise...
S-C-R-A-M!
But if you're Turkish, you have to know your
Turkish city names or else you'll be in,
Trabzon'un Te'si,
Rize'nin Re'si,
Ordu'nun O'su,
Urfa'nIn U'su,
Bursa'nIn Be'si,
Lüleburgaz'...