Why why why?

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Ipek K

Most of those names are given to the foreign cities and countries during Ottoman Empire period, and therefore they have Persian and Arabic grammar rules ( i.e -ye-ya and -istan) on them.
Also in the 2nd Meşrutiyet period, there was a great influence of French in the daily Ottoman life and some of them get the names as French pronunciation - but written in Turkish phonetics.

Both of them are right since according to Turkish linguistics, a word which is widely adopted and adapted to the daily language is accepted as correct grammarwise- only irregular to Turkish büyük sesli uyumu and küçük sesli uyumu- sorry, don't know the English terms.-.

EDIT: SELENA: Jarusalem comes from Yeru-Shalem, meaning the "city of Shalem," or "founded by Shalem." If shalem means "complete," or "without defect, " Yerushalayim would mean the "perfect city," or "the city of he who is perfect".
Therefore , El-Salem should mean "The complete one"

Source: Boredom :D

..Tolia..

we have this in Greek too

your way is the right one

keep it - as we keep ours :)
this is an element of your culture and uniqueness too

The Babe is Armed!

Interesting question. We do this in English a lot too.

Germany is not Deutschland or Allemagne
Austria is not Nemsowi (or however you would spell it, I just know it from Arabic)
Greece is not Hellas or Yunanistan or Al-Yunan
Egypt is not Msr

Turkey is Turkey. I don't know who you people are, trying to tell me something different!
[just kidding of course :) ]

EDIT: Yay, I have something else to contribute. Jerusalem in Arabic is not Jerusalem at all. They call it Al-Qds, with that really hard Q sound. It kind of means "The Holy."

istanbul bogazi

i loved your question:)
When i text message with my brother i always write everything in like we read in Turkish:) Like çarli did that, liyona gittim, tuluz'dan geliyorum lol lol:)

I understand what you mean and i would love to open also another conversation subject in your giyab (giyabinda:)))
Why there are people who use foreign words instead of existing words in Turkish for example. That makes me really angry. Does being good at one language make you forget your own language?

Another thing: I went to a shop in Istanbul last year i had a problem with a shirt size.
I write the exact converstaion:
Me: Can i change this shirt it is a little bit big for me.
Girl: Of course. Let me see what type of shirt is this...
Me: This is your shirts called VIP (vip i pronounced as in Turkish)
Girl: Sorry. But i don't remember oh God what is it cik cik cik...
Me: ..... (thinking ?????)
Girl: OOOOO i understand now you mean viii ayyy piiiiiii
Me: dumur!!!!!

After that : what is ben size geri donucem. Nereye donuyorsun?

Do you understand me? I know you do:)

EDIT: I will ask it:) Are you ready?:)))

anlarm

Good question. Greeks pronounce and write all city names in Greek.
Londra comes from the French pronunciation. We say Barselona (Barcelona) which is the Catalan pronunciation. But the 'best' examples are in Cyprus. Every town has 3 names: English, Turkish and Greek

Nicosia - Lefkoşa - Lefkosia
Limassol - Limasol/Leymosun - Lemesos
Famagusta - Mağusa - Amohostos
Kyreina - Girne - Kerinia
Paphos - Baf - Pafo

♥ ☼ ♫ Ibrahim ♫ ☼ ♥

Usually the right writing and pronunciation is the original one, that is to say the one used by the people living in this place.
...
But many people don't even try to use the original version, because they think that the proper one is their one
...

Hurricane

in high school,our Turkish teacher told us that "London" is made Turkish by TDK like "Londra" So the professors in TDK decide how to write and read them in Turkish.
your other examples should be the same way,they all go to TDK's way.

I'm Macedonian!!!

that's normal in every language. For example, we in Macedonia call Turkey - Turcija, England - Anglija, France - Francija. Germans call their country Deutschland and the rest or the world call it Germany. That's normal...The thing is that people adapt words in their language so they can pronounce them easier...

Qu'est ce que tu pense?

Because it's easier for that language to pronounce. Many Americans wouldn't call Turkey, Turkiye, because they wouldn't know how to pronounce it correctly.

Pinky

Ummm we Lebanese say Terkia lool

hanibal

We cant discus the logic of any language. In this position I cant see any logic also.

HolyWars

im not a linguistic specialist but i would easily say that; Languages aren static... They live, they change,...

City names are Universal.. But as i said, Lang. is a living thing; usually ppl choses the easy way to pronounce it....

For Turkish pronounces i can say that; French and Arabic has been affective for a long time... anyway, Don't mind these kind of things...

♫ Chloe ♫

i wonder how you say beirut and lebanon!! ..... mmm...

usourselvesandourcats

This is an awesome question. I loved it. Great observation...
I haven't researched this, but here is my hypothesis:

Maybe these words were introduced by certain travel writers, authors, or editors. And some has chosen to change the spelling according the way we would pronounce the words, and some kept it in the original spelling and introduced the pronunciation... Well, and time after time, they stayed the way they were originally introduced to Turkish.

I guess overall, like any language we have double-standards.

Joannah

As my parents always say, "Just because, because, because." ^_^

Totally Blunt

And you say that's changing the name of cities? Hear this out:

Chinese is composed of standard syllables, many of them. These syllables all have to start with a consonant (sessiz harf). Most of the time, foreign names donot conform to the syllables, so they pick the nearest sounding syllables and re-form the name with them. Hence, for example, America becomes Meiguo and New York becomes Niu Yue. (letters have accent signs, too)

It is natural that foreign names adapt to the local language. I also think that we donot have to know every foreign language and its pronunciation. I just wish we translated all names to the Turkish pronunciation.

I took me ages to learn that Sean isnot pronounced Siin, but Şan, and that Hugh is Hyu.

Çetin

for me TÜRKİYE is TÜRKİYE , not TURKEY.
That is all!
-------
Prof.Dr.Oktay Sinanoğlu-Bye Bye TÜRKÇE!
http://www.turkcedunya.com/oktay_sinanoglu_kimdir

Selena

I believe it was a matter of pronounciation...can you see Anglophonics saying Marseille...
I really would like to know why Jerusalem became El Salem....if anybody knows!!!!

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