Which one is it: Turkiye or Turkey?

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Mert E

The real pronounciation is Turkiye but the English speaking countries pronounce the country as "Turkey" which others confuse to the animal. Many people have made absurd jokes of the country having the same name as a animal and it's made many Turks furious.

An example would be back in 2002 when Turkey finished 3rd place in the 2002 FIFA World Cup a famous Turkish popstar Tarkan was singing his country a song in Turkey but he was wearing a shirt that said "Turkey", when the audience saw this they started throwing things at him and booed alot.

The country that gave the name Turkey was Britain at that time both Britain and Turkey were having issues and war, some say the British gave the name Turkey on purpose since Brits despise Turks and vice versa.

Even if the Turks tried to get everyone to pronounce their countries name correctly it wouldn't really get them anywhere because they cant change whats done.

The only language that pronounces Turkey's true country name Turkiye is Spanish where they say Turqia.

biff.1145

Both are correct just a matter of which one is more commonly used - Anglicized version has highest use at the moment

The name of Turkey, Türkiye in the Turkish language, can be divided into two words: Türk, which means "Strong" in Old Turkic and usually signifying the inhabitants of Turkey or a member of the Turkish or Turkic peoples,[10] a later form of "Tu–kin", a name given by the Chinese to the people living south of the Altay Mountains of Central Asia as early as 177 BCE;[11] and the abstract suffix –iye (derived from the Arabic suffix –iyya, but also associated with the Medieval Latin suffix –ia in Turchia, and the Medieval Greek suffix –ία in Τουρκία), which means "owner" or "related to". The first recorded use of the term "Türk" or "Türük" as an autonym is contained in the Orkhon inscriptions of the Göktürks (Sky Turks) of Central Asia (c. 8th century CE). The English word "Turkey" is derived from the Medieval Latin "Turchia" (c. 1369).

Jane S

Depends on whether you are using English or Turkish.

is it Spain or España?

Germany or Deutschland?

England or Britain? :)

federico u

turkiye

aris

i think the true one is Türkiye...

amada

We call Eygpt ' Misir' which means corn, and no one is upset.

Turkey was named for the Turks, believe it or not. Turk can mean either "a citizen of the modern state of Turkey" or more broadly, "an individual of the Turkic-speaking people." The many Turkic languages are spoken not only in Turkey but also in a large area of central Asia and in northern Siberia. The real question is the origin of the name Turk. The word is essentially the same in many languages, including English, Turkish, Arabic, and Persian (Farsi). It probably comes from some Turkish root, but there's no consensus on which one. It may be one root meaning "strong" or "vigorous" (according to the American Heritage Dictionary) or it may be another meaning "the people" (according to the Encyclopedia Americana).

There are a couple of other theories of how the country got its name, both wrong. The first has it that the country was named after the first leader of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. But like most Turks, Mustafa didn't have any surname at all until 1934, when he chose Atatürk ("Father of the Turks") for himself. He had already given the country its western-influenced name Türkiye several years earlier. During the period of the empire, the Turkish name for the country had nothing to do with the Turks. Rather, it was named for the Osman (Ottoman) dynasty that ruled it. Another theory has it that the English named the country after the bird, as a taunt. But the country was already called "Turki" or "Turkeye" in English by 1275, hundreds of years before the bird was known in the Old World.

Now I'll give you the bird. It's likely the first bird called "turkey" in English wasn't the familiar Thanksgiving fowl (Meleagris gallopavo), but a smaller domesticated bird originally from sub-Saharan Africa: (Numida meleagris), which we now call the Guinea fowl. This bird was introduced to the Mediterranean in ancient times and was known (as a rarity) to the Greeks and Romans. It was named after the mythical Meliagrides, who were the sisters of Meleager and who were turned to birds after his death. This bird seems to have disappeared from Europe and was reintroduced from west Africa by Portuguese traders at the end of the fifteenth century. If this bird was from Africa, why was it called "turkey" in English? Probably because it was introduced to England by so-called "Turkey merchants" who traded with the Mediterranean region, including the Ottoman Empire (which then controlled the eastern third of that sea). A similar confusion caused another New World species, maize or corn (Zea mays), to be called "Turkey wheat" or "Turkey corn" in England.

Oekaki

Some Turks do push for the country to be called "Turkiye" in English, but I think that's absurd.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6809595757

There are many instances of animals or fruits being named after countries (in Turkish, turkey is named after India, corn after Egypt, orange after Portugal) and it seems childish to me to make that an issue. So what if we are the butt of dorky American jokes every now and then? Since when do we take Americans seriously?

Petros C

Turkiye = Turkish
Turkey = English

slightly otaku

Yes, you may be right, it is not normal to call a country by an animal's name and it may be best that it is changed.

But after such a long time and when everyone knows it that way, it will probably be much more bothersome than being subject to the childish jokes of stupid,unimportant people, I think. If we now,of all times, start to push the world to change our name it will become a big deal and a bigger laughing matter for some time. It will be like reminding everyone once again that we have an animal's name and we are still whining about it.

As mentioned, there are some odd-sounding country names in Turkish, too. Like;
Egypt is "Mısır" in Turkish, meaning "corn".
India is "Hindistan", meaning something like "the country of turkeys", ironic, isn't it? And the language and people of India directly translates to the word meaning turkey in Turkish.(which is hindi.)

But I've never heard anyone making jokes about them, not even the third graders do anymore:) I guess that means Turkish people have a better sense of humour than most of the English-speaking people...

EileenL

lol ok there are many answers to your question but i also want to remark something,
my father is turkish and he hates it when people say turkey, chicken hahaha (i mean i know thats not funny at all) but in turkish we also call India Hindistan "Hindi"stan, we do the same thing or what? :)

Queen of Great Britain? i dont get it

turkeyismyheart<3

Well we dont know, turks call it turkiye, and not turkey.
It are the english who has to change it into turkiye. But the reason why they called it Turkey, is because the turkey's (animal) travelled from India, to Turkey at the ottoman times. And the turkey's (animal) stayed in Turkey. And thats why they call it. Well that's what I hear from others.

But here is what it says on the internet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey#Etymology

Çetin

hi,
What about Türkiye?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbDWk44eFVo

Kay

Could also be Anatolia.

arpsy

for your information the name of the animal was putting turkey because some centuries ago the turks were in charge to comercialize this bird from İndia (wich was not the mexican turkey but a similar one) and naming Turkey as it does not have anything to do with this animal as it has being explained above.
why Mexico is translated in other lenguages like Mejico or pronounced like Meksico?....

Min Tous Kiklous Terates

BIFF.. i like your answer..but what i want to know is this...if the turk or turkiye...existed before the pilgrim fathers went to america..WHO? named the bird TURKEY and why? ...maybe it should be they change the name of the bird?......"gobble" ..comes to mind..

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