Turkish Phrases

Phil Buckley at a Turkish well

In the 15 plus years he’s been based in Turkey Phil Buckley has learnt a few words of the language although his children, at the local school, laugh at his accent.

Here he tries to explain a little about why Turkish is special…

Learning Turkish is one of the biggest hurdles for anyone who intends to spend a lot of time in the country. Particular difficulties include a wider range of harmonising vowel sounds compared to most Indo-European languages, (1) a very different syntax (think Yoda in Star Wars who instead of saying “I am going to my house” might say “house mine to going am I”) and a strange vocabulary wherein there are a few hooks to latch onto the words of German and Spanish we learnt at school.

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk teaching 1928

Until Atatürk overhauled the language in the early 20th Century the task was even harder as Turkish was written in Arabic script and included many more words borrowed from Arabic and Persian. Although it was the intention of the reforming committee to purge the new Turkish of these Ottoman Empire interlopers and replace them with older, real Turkish, many have survived. You still hear yalla from the Arabic and heard all over the Middle East for “get a move on” and occasionally you might find yourself sweet-headed or sarhoş from the Persian that means you are drunk! To this day legal documents have Arabic names which are as obscure to the average Turk as Latin terms are in European jurisprudence to most ordinary citizens.

Turkish (Arabic) script vs Latin Script 1928

When the reformers couldn’t find real Turkish equivalents for the loan word they often converted French words so it’s not difficult to see the relationship between the otogar and the French autogare for the bus-station. And, of course, in the information age, English technological terms are rife: your sophisticated city friends are as likely to refer to their laptop (computer) as their dizüstü.

Turkish 101

There is also lots of fun to be had in learning Turkish not least when you come across a useful phrase for which there is no easy equivalent in other languages. These words often express a nuanced and considerate way of interacting with one another that leaves English looking rather poor.

A good example is the phrase eline sağlık. (2) It literally means “health to you hands” and is used specifically to compliment the cook on his or her skills. Instead of taking the compliment and saying thank you your hosts will deflect the praise and reply with afiyet olsun which is the Turkish equivalent of bon appétit. You can use it more generally to anyone who has just produced something worthy involving craftsmanship.

Another favourite is kolay gelsin. This means “may you accomplish it easily” and you can use it in place of a greeting for those you encounter on your rambles doing anything from pruning their roses to building tower blocks. If you use it to the old men playing backgammon and okey in the cafés they will still thank you (sağolun, lit. “be well”) rather than suspect you of irony in implying that their time might be better spent!

Çok yaşa! is what someone says to use if you sneeze or cough. (3) In Engish we would say “bless you” or “gesundheit” (which is, of course, German!). The Turkish means “to (your) long life” or “live long” and again instead of a crass thank you Turkish is much more refined. You can reply with sende gör which means “and you to see it”, sneeze again and your well-wisher might grant you a ripe old age (güzel yaşa) or a thousand long lives (bin yaşa) and, in between catching your breath and sneezing again you just must squeeze in hep beraber – “(may we live that long) all together”- the which phrase is mostly Persian in origin!

Recently, in company, we were trying to find examples of Turkish words that had made it into English. Yoghourt, divan, buffet and odalisque are all examples. The last one is from the Turkish odalık which means “with the room” and implies the-girl-that-comes-with-the-room. And I have a theory that the Jim of Sonny Jim might well be the cim of Abicim (4) (“dear brother”) that British soldiers picked up in the Crimean War when, unusually, the Brits and the Turks were on the same side. If any of our readers know more examples of Turkish that has crept into English or other European languages we would love to hear from them.

But for a final example of words that show off the richness of Turkish and paucity of English when it comes to being kind to one another I leave you with güle güle kullan, which is said to someone who has received something new and means (something like) “let it bring you happiness when you use it”. The answer this time, you will be glad to hear, is a tongue-twisting but simple teşekkür ederim (“thank you”).

Map of Turkish (Turkic) Speaking Countries

Information about the Turkish Language and some additional phrases:
Wikipedia tells us that the Turkish language is spoken by over 80 million people worldwide. Turkish speakers are located all over the globe and concentrated in parts of Eastern Europe such as Kosovo and Albania and in Western Europe, Germany has several million Turkish speakers. At the right is a map of countries with significant Turkish-speaking populations.

In Turkey, the Turkish language is nominally regulated by the Turkish Language Association (Turkish: Türk Dil Kurumu – TDK) which is the official regulatory body of the Turkish language.

Some additional phrases which are interesting or funny:

Yemeğin salçalısı, kadının kalçalısı.
Food is good with tomato sauce, a girl is good with hips.

Yenilen pehlivan güreşe doymaz.
A defeated wrestler is not tired of wrestling.(for losers)

Zamansız öten horozu keserler.
The cock that crows at the wrong time is killed.

Eşek hoşaftan ne anlar.
An ass does not appreciate fruit compote.(for someone who can’t understand)

Bekarlık sultanlıktır.
There is no sovereignty like bachelorhood.(a man does what he can do when he is a bachelor)

Gülü seven dikenine katlanır.
If you love roses you should endure the thorns.

Benden uzak Allah’a yakın ol.
Stay far from me and close to God.( Said to someone who you don’t like)

Denizden babam çıksa yerim.
I would eat anything coming out of the sea even if it was my father.

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