For practitioners of Molière’s language, this changes nothing. But for those who use Shakespeare’s language, it’s a minor language revolution. In English, the name Turkey corresponds to the same phonetics as the word turkey. A consonance with which the Anglo-Saxon press has a field day publishing puns. But this humor will soon no longer be practical, as the country has asked for its name to be changed. explanation.
Indeed, under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey has asked the United Nations to change its name so that it, pronounced in English, is no longer equated with the Thanksgiving holiday fetish poultry. To end all confusion, Ankara wants to call its country “Türkiye”. This change, which corresponds to the Turkish translation, makes all the difference to the ear of an English-speaking person.
In fact, in the end, this change wouldn’t just be phonetic. For example, the new name Turkey is used in French communication. On its website, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already decided to write “Republic of Türkiye”. Consumers could recognize this change in the future by noting the origin of products where it will be marked “made in Türkiye”. The country has also begun to announce its new name through an advertising campaign.
Türkiye, her alanda olduğu gibi dilde ve iletişimde de kendi benliğini ve kimliğini güçlendiriyor!
“Turkey” değil, “Türkiye”
Turkey here #helloTurkiye! pic.twitter.com/95k6581fPy— Fahrettin Altun (@fahrettinaltun) January 13, 2022
Kiev instead of Kiev
The change in pronunciation of the names of countries and cities is certainly current. While Russia has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers on the Ukrainian border, where NATO fears an offensive by Vladimir Putin’s forces, a linguistic struggle is already underway to correctly write and pronounce the capital’s name.
As early as 2018, the Ukrainian embassy asked the United States to no longer write the name of the capital “Kiev” instead of “Kyiv”. This is anything but a detail. If the pronunciation is very close, then using the first option actually corresponds to a translation from the Russian language. By using the other spelling, one thus recognizes the Ukrainian identity. However, the Ukrainian government had launched a campaign on social networks to call for the writing of “Kiev” instead of “Kiev”. It is clear that the French-speaking press has not really taken note of this language difference, unlike its Anglo-Saxon counterparts.
(ETX Daily Up)