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
Euphemism -- a mild, indirect, or vague expression used
We hesitated to bring it to your attention at the time,
Starting in the middle of the picture, the ad says: March 2000 |
Turkish Palindromes
We know you know a palindrome when you see one in English...
But would you have spotted the following
Ey edip Adanada pide ye! Courtesy: Ertan KЬЗЬKYALЗIN, March 2000 |
Out-loud Word Spelling in Turkish
When you want to get rid of that pesky IRS agent who
So if you need to, say, spell your foreign-sounding surname to a Turkish-speaking someone, over the phone... |
Well-known Language School(s) in Turkey
Want to combine your next vacation with some 'Total Immersion' Turkish Language practice?
Language School(s) in Izmir/Istanbul/Ankara
Tцmer Language School
Istanbul: (90) (212) 230-7083
Turkish phone numbers work just like American ones: In winter, spring, and fall the classes run 2 months. That's the 'standard program'. Condensed classes are held in the summer.
Starting June 30, Tцmer offers 4 week programs.
Another Izmir/Istanbul/Ankara lead --
"The English Fast International Language School"
More 'Educational News'... |
How Turks Learn English Pronunciation Phonetics 101
Remembering how to pronounce "Fish" in English
When he looks at the spelling of the English word 'fish' a Turk's instinct is to pronounce the word as "feee-sh". To help himself remember the correct pronunciation, he must memorize the character sequence 'ghoti'. After that, he simply needs to remember to pronounce the 'gh' as in the English word 'tough', the 'o' as in the English word 'women', the 'ti' as in the English word 'nation' -- and there you have it. F - I - SH... Phonetics 102
As an English language pronunciation exercise, I used to repeat two phrases to myself over and over. The first one was, "I run each team". And the second was, "Why high, one why?". But to help me pronounce the phrases correctly, I'd say the Turkish phrases "Ayran iзtim" and "Vay hayvan vay?" -- which gave me a close approximation of the sounds I wanted, though the syllable accenting wasn't very good.
The first Turkish phrase means, "I drank Ayran" -- Ayran being a national drink of ours made from yogurt. The second one means, "Oh! animal oh!". And I'm not kidding, these phrases got me going -- |
Uses of 'Efendim' To be respectful -- and uh... Yes, the word is 'Efendim' (pronounced as it looks) and it's used when Turkish speakers answer the phone. In that case it has the effect of saying "Hello" -- in a very respectful (polite) manner. It literally means "my master". It has another use, too...as a meaningless filler -- when you are speaking and you are in mid-sentence and you need to pause for some reason. Maybe you want to take a breath, maybe you momentarily forget the next word you want to use... For example...In English, we might speak a sentence like, "Yesterday was the first day of, uh, October." [We said 'uh' because we momentarily forgot which month it was.] In Turkish, in place of the 'uh' -- you'd hear 'Efendim', if the speaker was being polite...[And if he wasn't being polite? Well, you'd problee hear "uhhh" -- just like us!] And the complete spoken-Turkish sentence might look something like:
Ne sцylesem efendim...Dьn Ekimin birinci gьnь, efendim...;
BTW -- If the Turkish speaker of the above sentence is being especially refined, he'll even eliminate the 'd' sound. So, if he's really outto smooth-talk you, you'll only hear "Efenim" . And yet another use...If you ask a polite Turk a question, and she doesn't hear or understand you well enough, she will reply, "Efendim?" -- meaning, "I'm sorry, I didn't hear you well. Could you repeat please?" One final use...If you enter a room and call out the name of your polite Turkish friend, he will turn to you with a smile and say, "Efendim..." -- meaning, "Yes, I'm here. You've got my attention. I'm ready to listen to your next words..." Based on ideas from TЗ August '97 |
Sluurrring in Turkish Whatchagonnadonexsadurdeeforlunch...? That's right...We English speakers don't have a corner on the slurred speech market...
For example, in proper Turkish you would hear...
But in slurred Turkish speed-speech, this becomes...
This is very colloquial (just like in English), but it is heard/seen frequently in everyday speech -- and also in the dialogs of novels and stories. |
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