Guided Turkey tours talk about the name of Turkey
One thing is so clear. Both Turkey words name two different things. Come and have private Turkey tours and guided Turkey tours with us. You will have fun, see many new things, make friends and learn interesting facts. One of these facts is about the name of this impressive country. There are many speculations about it, including the bird. The name of the country we live in today may be the same as the English word for the bird but it has far different story of origin.
Italian merchant meets Turks but not on guided Turkey tours
The migration of various Turkish tribes to Anatolia from the 11th century changed the demographic and linguistic composition of Asia Minor. Accordingly, the Italian (Venetian and Genoa) merchant who didn’t go on guided Turkey tours nor chose private guide Turkey, but had the most intense shopping with Anatolia started to mention Turchia in this area since the 13th century. This use has become increasingly common.
It has passed from other Italian languages to other European languages. That’s how it got in English. So (with the capital letter T) Turkey is not the name of a bird in English, but the land where the Turks live. In other words, Turkey is nothing but English in Turkey.
British and Americans say Turkey. French – Turquie, Italians – Turchia.
Name of a country or bird
To start with, we can say that the word Turkey for the country appeared first. People used it to refer to land occupied by the Turks since the 1300s and is probably derived from the word Turk. Even Chaucer used the word in one of his books, The Book of the Duchess. We don’t know exactly where it comes from, probably from the Medieval Latin term Turcus. Despite its unknown origin, different languages such as Italian and Spanish (Turco) use it. Also Arabic and Persian (Turk), as well as many others who refer to people who live in that region. Another thing is that people also knew the land where Turks lived as the Ottoman Empire. Over time, the Ottoman Empire grew and expanded, covering a very wide area. More precisely, it has settled into a very large area between Europe and the Far East (China, India, etc.).
Coming from Turkey
Moreover, Europe has begun to acquire many products of the lands of the eastern part of the Ottoman Empire, material culture things always through the Ottomans. This led to many such things being looked at as coming from Turkey. This is the case with turkey, the bird. It’s all about another bird, guinea fowl which resembles the turkey, known in America. The bird is actually native to eastern Africa and the Ottoman Empire imported it to Europe. Once it was introduced to Europe Europeans started calling the guinea fowl the turkey-cock or turkey-hen, because the bird came from the Turks.
In short, this is the story of the bird turkey and the country Turkey. At least, probably one of the stories. Although there might be other stories, we choose this one as it sounds very plausible and we invite you to contact us and find out how to visit Turkey. Whether it be guided Turkey tours, private guide Turkey or Private Turkey tours, you decide we arrange it.
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