Monday 15 February 2010
Random Turkish Fact #10
The Turks don't have a word for 'boy'. There is a word for 'girl' but Turkish males pass directly from 'babies' to 'men'.
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boy,
girl,
random Turkish fact
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7 comments:
Nicely spotted...Checkout "oğlan" and "delikanlı" though ;)
Yes, I've heard these but, from what I understand (which isn't a lot), "oğlan" means "son" and "delikanlı" translates to "crazy blood".
I was just checking Zargan.com and I see that, rather disturbingly, "oğlancılık" is down as "sodomy". Erm...
I don't mean to turn this into a didactic situation but it goes like this:
oğlu -> son of
oğul -> son (as in "the" son)
oğlan -> boy (as in "a" son)
delikanlı has no English counterpart as far as I know, zargan has many definitions the closest of which is "lad"+"young man" combined.
and then there is "oğlak" which is a young male goat. I leave it up to you to look up "oğlakcılık" ;)
I'm going to look up "didactic" first... OK got it. To teach. As a teacher, I should probably know that. Aaaaaanyway.
So, what's the verdict? Am I right? Is there a word for 'boy' or not? I'm talking about 'boy' as in young male not 'a son'.
And in Italy, the Italians go from bambino to ragazzo...and then stay there!
They have uomo, but I don't think anyone truly believes that it's applicable.
FMaggi
http://burntbythetuscansun.blogspot.com
No, you can say oğlan for boy...
it's ok.
We usually use 'çocuk'. I know it means child but also it means a boy. If a girl say ' şu çocuğu gördün mü?', she means 'did you see that boy?'
hi btw :)
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