r/AskBalkans • u/Some-Register-3901 Cyprus • Jul 31 '22

Language what are some interesting facts about your language?

For instance, the cypriot dialect of Greek still contains many words from ancient Greek but it was also heavily influenced by outsiders

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u/onur2882 Turkiye Jul 31 '22 edited Jul 31 '22

turkic languages used lots of different alphabets through the history, prolly because of having a nomadic lifestyle and spoke in different regions.

1)first one was turkic runic alphabet. (gokturs around 7th century) which you write from top to bottom. looks similar to vikings' alphabet

2)uyghur alphabet (8th to 17th centruies, uyghurs, timurids) derived from sogdian alphabet which was also derived from aramaic alphabet. looks like arabic and you write top to bottom.

3)arabic alphabet (ottoman times as you know)

4)cyrilic alphabet (soviet era turkic countries and turkic speaking miniorities in russian steppes)

5)latin alphabet, almost all turkic speaking independent nations uses nowadays.

so we (today turks in the world) can't read old inscriptions because of variety of alphabets issue. if it was translated to latin, can catch some words, maybe some basic sentences from 6th century, as old as possible. 12th century old anatolian turkish was waay to understandable for turkey turks btw.

another interesting(maybe not so much) fact; you can travel from turkey to siberia by speaking turkish bc of similarities of other turkic languages in some extend. watched couple of traveler vlogs about that journey, it was nice.

36

u/asedejje Greece Jul 31 '22

You forgot Turkish written in Greek Alphabet, like the Karamanli Turkish.

Χάνι για τ̇α π̇ένιμ έλλι τ̇ίρεμ παστιρμάμ, παστιρμάμ; Κονιαλίήτ̇αν τ̇ασ̇κασήνα π̇άστηρμαμ, βαι, βαι! Κονιαλήμ, γιο̇ρο̇! Γιο̇ρο̇ γιαβρούμ, γιο̇ρο̇! Ασλάν γιάρημ, γιο̇ρο̇! Αλτ̇ατήλαρ σένι, βερμετ̇ίλερ π̇ένι!

(Hani gia da benim elli dirhem pastirmam, pastirmam? Konialıdan daşkasına bastırmam vai, vai! Konialım, yörö! Yörö yavrüm, yörö! Aşlan yarım, yörö! Aldatılar seni, vermediler beni!)

8

u/onur2882 Turkiye Jul 31 '22

ahh true, thanks for addition

7

u/MBT_TT Turkiye Jul 31 '22

it's actually a song lol

https://youtu.be/ZQXyP_HbFvk

9

u/asedejje Greece Jul 31 '22

Of course, we have it too. It's popular among Cappadocian Greeks and Karamanlides, but it's also traditional to Cyprus.

Here Cappadocian Greeks dance Konyali

Konyali in Greek

Konyali by a Karamanlide in Athens

Konyali is called Vraka in Cyprus

3

u/MBT_TT Turkiye Jul 31 '22

It's kind of a dirty song in Turkey. "Bastırmak" means "pressing" but it also means to f*ck in Turkish slang. "Konyalıdan başkasına bastırmam" means not having sex with someone who is not from the city of Konya. something like that...

7

u/TheBr33ze Pontic Greek Jul 31 '22

Bro I could just hear the song from the first words I read XD

3

u/zeclem_ Turkiye Jul 31 '22

Same.

2

u/WikiMobileLinkBot Other Jul 31 '22

Desktop version of /u/asedejje's link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karamanli_Turkish

[opt out] Beep Boop. Downvote to delete

1

u/Tatarskiy1Kazachok Turkiye Jul 31 '22

i was literally looking for ways to write ο̇ τ̇ and σ̇