Dean Christakos« Pictures from the Church of St. Nicholas | Main | Stuff You Can't Make Up »
April 18, 2006
Language notes from Turkey
At present, I am in Izmir, on the Aegean coast, having just returned from a visit to Ephesus. Normally, during this trip I've been avoiding the 'tourist sites you have to visit' excursions, though I made an exception for Rome and Istanbul, and on my way up from Demre, I figured, 'hey, Ephesus supposedly has the best-preserved ruins of a Roman city in the eastern Mediterranean. This might actually be worth it.' From Izmir, I will head out to the Aegean port city of Çeşme, from where I will catch a ferry to the Greek island of Chios.
Anyway, this trip through Turkey has been a bit daunting because I speak absolutely no Turkish, though thankfully many people speak English or are at least willing to be patient with me as I patomime my way through explaining what I need. One phrase I can say pretty well in Turkish is İngilizce konuşuyor musunuz? (een-gee-leez-je ko-noo-shoo-yor moo-soo-nooz?) which means 'Do you speak English?'
If the person doesn't speak English, occasionally I will ask them if they speak Hunance (hunanje -- 'Ionian'), which is the modern Turkish term for 'Greek' and the only other language I speak with any kind of competency. Now, the original Turkish term for the Greek people was 'Rum'-- the Romans, which is what the Greek-speakers of Greece and Asia Minor called themselves until right around the Enlightenment and Independence Era. The term still persists in references to the Greek Orthodox Church in Turkey, which is referred to as the 'Rum Ortodox' Church. So once I referred to the Greek language as Rumce (rumje). At this point I was told that 'Rumce' now actually refers to the Pontic Greek Language which is still spoken in the region by some Muslim families on the Black Sea coast and amongst the Greeks living in the Republic of Georgia and Greeks living in Armenia (and some members of the Greek community in Norwalk, Connecticut). In Greek the language is generally generally referred to as Pontiako or Pontiaki.
Posted by Dean at April 18, 2006 10:53 AM