Turkic Languages
There are, impressively, many words in Turkic languages and dialects that survive as remnants of Old Turkic - but teyeñ or teyin is by far the one that surprised me the most. 🐿
Happy World Turkic Language Family Day!
🇦🇿🇰🇬🇰🇿🇹🇲🇹🇷🇺🇿
Gray Marmot (native to Euroasia)
Gray Squirrel (not native to Euroasia)
“Yes! Where did you hear that from?”
He replied, “That’s what it used to be called by the elders back in the old days. Young people nowadays don’t know it.”
Teyeñ is an Old Turkic word for squirrel (or marmot?) attested in the Orkhon inscriptions from 735 CE as kök teyeñ (𐰚𐰇𐰚:𐱅𐰘𐰭) - gray squirrel.
I showed my father-in-law a short funny video clip of a squirrel. He responded in Turkish:
“Ne o? He. Teyin. Sincap.” (What is that? Oh. Teyin. Squirrel.)
My eyes lit up;
I asked, “What did you just call it?”
He looked confused: “Sincap?”
I said, “No! What did you call it before that?”
“Teyin?”
Vilhelm Thomsen
UNESCO marks the first World Turkic Language Family Day, celebrating the shared linguistic and cultural heritage of Turkic-speaking peoples and commemorating 15 Dec 1893, when Danish linguist Vilhelm Thomsen deciphered the Orkhon inscriptions 🇩🇰
To mark the day, I’m sharing a surprise from last year
When you discover exciting things in the old collection: a #Turkestani edition of Ahmed Yesevis Dīvān-ı Ḥikmet from 1900, which Martin Hartmann acquired during a visit to #Tashkent.
حکمت حضرت سلطان العارفین خواجه احمد بن ابراهیم بن محمود بن افتخار یسوی
halit.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/search?q=id%...
👨🏫📚 Happy to share that from August 1st, I'll join the University of Copenhagen as an external lecturer at the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, teaching Middle Eastern Language and Society with a focus on Turkish culture, society, and language. 🇹🇷🇩🇰
a green exhibition poster with pink elephants that reads TREASURED in big gold letters
My first co-curated exhibit opens this evening @bodleianlibraries.bsky.social!
TREASURED is a treasures exhibition that questions the very notion. It's also the first at the #Bodleian with around 50% non-Western material.
Those in #Oxford can visit starting tomorrow, 6 June. And it's free!
📜 Today’s linguistic surprise: The Turkish word 'borç' (meaning debt or loan) turns out to be a loanword from the ancient Sogdian language! 😯
#sogdian #sogdia #sogdiana
I love the Azerbaijani expression for when someone passes away: 'Dünyasını dəyişib,' which translates to 'Changed his/her world.' ✨🌏
Johannes Østrup's (philologist in Semitic languages) remarkable journey on horseback from Damascus to Copenhagen. Shifting Horizons (1894) – a true journey through time and an absolute pleasure! 🌍🐎📖
#JohannesØstrup #Østrup #OttomanEmpire #Turkey #Denmark #Syria #Arabia
