In this Episode, let's take a look at the delightful Turkish language under some unexpected angles looking into the essence and flavors of its savory words and exquisite journey. To start off, were you aware that more people in the world speak Turkish than Italian and Greek combined? A surprising at first glance fact which is not necessarily makes it a language you would need but surely puts things into a different perspective.

Another unexpected fact: Turkish comes from... Siberia! Emerging in the Altai mountain range of Siberia, it proceeded across the steppe grasslands as nomadic tribes spreaded out into central Asia and beyond. This also makes Turkish the largest member of the Turkic language family and confirms an absence of any "blood relationship" with the Arabic language —a subject we went deep into in the previous Episode.

Some English words we are so used to came from Turkish. I am sure you know it about words like kebab, or baklava, or bulgur. But what about their more subtle fellows? Say, pastrami by one of the two theories is believed to come from the Turkish language (another theory deems it to be Greek) —a word I always regarded to be of Italian origin.

The word bergamot —a type of citrus fruit and tree— (that I, in my head, decided has British roots), in 1690s came from French where it arrived from Italian bergamotta, named for Bergamo, town in northern Italy. BUT! Earlier (in 1610s) the same word was used for a kind of pear deemed especially luscious; in this sense the word is ultimately a Romanic folk-etymologization of Turkish beg-armudi meaning "prince's pear" or "lord of pears".

Yogurt definitely has the "taste" of Turkish on your tongue. It is derived from Turkish yoğurt, and is usually related to the verb yoğurmak ("to knead", or "to be curdled or coagulated", "to thicken"). It may be related to yoğun ("thick" or "dense"). The sound ğ was traditionally rendered as "gh" in transliterations of Turkish, that is why you can see both spellings in English: yogurt and yoghurt (less often yoghourt or yogourt).

With Turkish being all "sticky" as a language, or agglutinative, meaning that its sentences consist of words that are "glued" out of little pieces like affixes, suffixes and alike, it is easy to sometimes end up with some of them looking quite long — something this Episode showed clearly. But Turkish has super short words, too. Take, for example, the word o — a pronoun for "he", "she", "it". Yes, all three!

This fact also means that the language doesn't have gender! You don't have to specify was it a he or a she. You don't even have to put a pronoun into a sentence — the verb will do the job.

Added bonus: there are also no articles in Turkish! No "a"s, "an"s, or "the"s. I mean, you'd think that as an English-speaking person you would have no trouble using articles in any language. But then you open Greek... and all that confidence vanishes in an instant. So, the good old Turkish language does the learners a grand gesture by having no articles, really.

Another bonus in Turkish: no need to change a noun into a plural form when you use numbers (something Turkish people really struggle with when they are learning English)! Meaning, whether you have one apple or two apples, for the Turkish language its analog of the plural ending -s is unneeded: bir elma, iki elma.

Talking about Turkish people struggling with English, fancy a fun break (01:38)?

And before we finish this particular Langventure, let me direct your attention to the "family relationships" words in Turkish which are rather meticulously spelled out.

Turkish word for "sister" is kız kardeş, and for "brother" is erkek kardeş. But! If you are a yonger one, you would address your older sister using "abla" and your older brother or brothers as "abi" (short for ağabey —ah-ah-bay), whereas they'd address you by your name.

Aunties and uncles are all called differently depending on whose siblings they are — your mother's or your father's:

• the brother of your mother is called dayı (die-yyi);
• the sister of your mother is called teyze (tay-zeh);
• the brother of your father is called amca (um-juh);
• the sister of your brother is called hala (huh-luh).

There are also words invented for the brother of your wife, the brother of your husband, two men married to two sisters, two women married to two brothers. This is unique to the Turkish language and it manifests how much family is valued in the Turkish society.

In Turkish, grannies also require special "attention". See, Turkish for "mother" is anne, for "father" is baba. So what is your mother's mother to you? Clearly anneanne — the mother of the mother. By the same logic, your father's mother to you is annebaba — the mother of the father. Well, nice, isn't it? But when it comes to grandpas, either one is simply dede. Why hustle? )

And how about this word — yakamoz (ya-kuh-moz)? This one won the title of the most beautiful word in the world (!) in the contest made by a German magazine in 2007 (out of 2,500 words from 58 countries) for its ability to convey that divine phenomenon happening at night when the shimmering moonlight reflects on the water in one word. It also describes the blue, fluorescent glow created by bioluminescent plankton in the water. 

Although, in this particular case, not to take from the sparkling beauty and poetry of the Turkish language, but I've been doing Langventures long enough to remind the dear judges that same exact ability possesses the Swedish word mångata (mo-an-gaa-tah) literally translated as "moonstreet", so... A rematch, maybe? )

And just to conclude the "Amazing Turkish Words" category, let me at least drop here the "pretty" one that is the most used in Turkish since it is so incredibly universal in that language: güzel (gyou-zel). It means "beautiful", it means "delicious", and it means "good". The weather is güzel, the woman is güzel, the food is güzel, and everything is güzel!

I hope this little "findings" about Turkish showed you how versatile the language is. I am sure, once you are on your own journey into Turkish, you'll find your own "little gems" you'd cherish. 

The language is definitely not the hardest to learn, especially when you get used to a different sentence structure and "word-gluying". Latin-looking alphabet obviously helps immensely on the way. And, if you are learning it in Turkey, I am 100% positive the people around would always help — in my experience, the Turks were the most patient and supportive people I met while learning a local language.

So reigns to you, my friend! Türkçe (t-you-r-k-cheh) awaits!

And I see you in our next Langventure! Into the "great, powerful, righteous, and free Russian language"!

Güle güle! (gew-leh gew-leh) Bye-bye!

"Türkçe is güzel! Like!"

Discover more about Turkish and other languages at langventure.mystrikingly.com!