Language – although so difficult for me – is a fascinating subject. Like so many things it organically evolves and develops from seemingly nowhere. Amazingly, 690 new words were added to the Merriam Webster Dictionary in 2023 but with most likely 680 of these being added from the IT world, I have no plans to rote learn them.

The study of Language is another specialism of the Anthropologist. There are 7000 different world languages, how were they formed and how did they morph in to what we have today? Where would we be without language (some might say in a better place…shut up Donald!)? We think in language, and all our social and cultural activities use a language as a communication tool.

The Turkish language has its own long history of development, but in its modern form created only in 1923 when the Arabic script was replaced by the Latin Alphabet.

If there is one thing that makes, ’eyes roll’ around me, it is my lack of Turkish language skills after 23 years of living in the country. As I write this number, I am deeply ashamed.

This is no defense (although I am going to give it a try) but Turkish is a difficult language to learn. The US foreign office classifying it as a Grade 4 level of difficulty with Grade 5 accolades going to Mandarin, Arabic and Japanese, as harder to learn. “It will take a year of intense study to learn Turkish” says the FSI.

In Turkish everything happens around the verb: the tense (put in the middle), the personal pronoun (at the end) and the negative (even this, put in the middle…somewhere). I saw this great example the other day:

Go : Git

I go : Giderim

I will go : Gideceğim

I will not go : Gitmeyeceğim

If I will not go : Gitmeyeceksem

If I will not be able to go : Gidemeyeceksem.

Now tell me that is not difficult? 8 words in English become a 14 letter word in Turkish.

Made more difficult by the fact that the verb comes right at the end of the sentence. You find yourself glazed over by the first few words in the sentence, not knowing what is really happening until the verb comes at the end. Doubly difficult when you then have to work out the tense, and is she going, or not going from that very last word. Yah. Oh, and for those familiar with this wonderful race, you will know that Turkish people are prone to talking all at the same time. So, either you don’t hear the verb at the end, or it is dropped completely from the conversation because everyone knows what is about to be said.

Berlitz tell me that 100 million people worldwide speak Turkish, so, I too can master it. This is my new focus. As someone recently said, ” if you ask for directions or food options in Barcelona, Rome, Paris or Amsterdam it is a Turkish person who is most likely helping you”. One more reason to learn.

So my friends …gideceğim! I am in that “intense year of study”. I have no time to talk to you 1.4 billion English speakers who can read this blog.

photos :

ashley- trethowan /unsplash

meric- dagli/