心存善念2022-01-19 17:24:33

Turkey has began a re-branding exercise of the country’s name following last month’s communique by President Erdogan who says the word ‘Türkiye’ not ‘Turkey’ represents and “expresses the culture, civilisation and values of the Turkish nation in the best way.”

 

The name change affects the English spelling of the country’s name which in Turkish is spelt as ‘Türkiye’,  will help avoid the confusion caused by the bird of the same name.

 

“In this context, the phrase “Made in Türkiye” is now being used instead of “Made in Turkey” on our export products, which are the pride of our country in international trade.”

 

 

(NPR’s explanation about why the bird was named Turkey)

 

The bird we eat on Thanksgiving is an exclusively North American animal. It is found in the wild on no other continent but ours. It evolved here. So why is this American bird named for a Eurasian country?

 

To find out, I went back to an interview I did almost 30 years ago on NPR's Morning Edition with Mario Pei, a Columbia University professor of Romance languages, who died shortly after our conversation.

 

I return to his answer because it is still the best one available.

Professor Pei had two theories.

 

In the 1500s when the American bird first arrived in Great Britain, it was shipped in by merchants in the East, mostly from Constantinople (who'd brought the bird over from America).

 

Since it wholesaled out of Turkey, the British referred to it as a "Turkey coq." In fact, the British weren't particularly precise about products arriving from the East. Persian carpets were called "Turkey rugs." Indian flour was called "Turkey flour." Hungarian carpet bags were called "Turkey bags."

 

If a product came to London from the far side of the Danube, Londoners labeled it "Turkey" and that's what happened to the American bird. Thus, an American bird got the name Turkey-coq, which was then shortened to "Turkey."

妖妖灵2022-01-19 22:26:40
我怎么就是不爱吃火鸡呢:)