Hello everyone,

I´ve opened up this thread because we have come across a British name, Robin Hood during a Turkish Literature class, and the teacher insisted that it should be pronunced as it is written(in Turkish), thus as "Ro-been Hoot" and that sounded awfully awkward and wrong to my ears..  What are your comments on this issue? Is there a rule for pronunciation of foreign names in Turkish?  I´d be glad to hear all your comments on this, thank you!

Merhaba herkese,

Bu konuyu açmamýn nedeni Türk Dili ve Edebiyatý dersi sýrasýnda Ýngiliz bir isim olan "Robin Hood" ismiyle karþýlaþmamýz ve öðretmenin bu ismin Türkçe okunuþu þeklinde, yani "Robin Hut" olarak okunmasý gerektiðini ýsrar etmesidir.  Bu okunuþ bana çok tuhaf ve yanlýþ geldi.  Bu konudaki yorumlarýnýz nelerdir?  Türkçe´de yabancý isimlerin telafuzu hakkýnda bir kural var mýdýr?  Bu konu hakkýnda hepinizin yorumlarýný duymayý isterim, teþekkürler!

ps: If there´s a thread already devoted to this topic, please post the link=)

I think the rule is to spell it phonetically, the way the are pronounced. It´s not unique to Turkish though, in Polish too we say foreign names the way they are pronounced (for example Szekspir for Shakespeare - Szekspir would be pronounced Þekspir if using Turkish letters - I have a feeling it´s probably something similar in Turkish too).

It probably sounds odd to somebody who grew up learning the original pronounciation, but I think it sounds more natural to a native speaker.

May be that links should be help you for your question.

http://www.zoque.net/az-ama-oz/22967-yabanci-isimlerin-dogru-yazilisi-2/

and

http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikipedi_tart%C4%B1%C5%9Fma:T%C3%BCrk%C3%A7enin_kullan%C4%B1m%C4%B1

According to the first link I live in Ãžikago.  

, apparently

My problem is not the written version, thank god we use the original name when writing it, and that putting the pronunciation may work just fine, but that´s actually where the problem starts , let me give another example;

this is a funny one I know but,

Voldemort

when you pronunce it, it´s something like Voldýmood in Turkish, but the teacher keeps saying it´s VoldemoRT putting emphasis on R and T which both should be almost silent.. I wouldn´t care much if she said it that way, but she doesn´t let me say it with the proper pronunciation either!(threatened to send me to the disciplinary commitee bla bla) So I need some sort of rule designed for this, because as you may imagine it´s incredibly hard and funny(!) for me to pronunce those names as they´re written in Turkish!=)

One of the most unfortunate persons to have a problem of this sort these days must be Harry Kewell who keeps hearing people call him Hairy Kewell in a bombastic manner.

Here comes Haiiiiryyy Kewellll!

Romanian prime minister"s name is Emil Boc (Bok sounds in turkish) . One time was an amical footboll match in Antalya between politicians and our gallary was screeming his name Bok Bok Bok

haha loving this "Bok" thing

When you say "I´m sick" ( =Hastayým in Turkish ) in English,  it sounds weird in Turkish for someone who doesn´t speak any English at all.

Same with the verb "TO HAVE" 1st person singular in romanian .

  Ex.   " I have only 13-14 players in.."

I understand why si´s example sounds weird - but not sure what you mean - what is the 1st person singular in Romanian?

Some Japanese names may have appalling meanings in Turkish.  I remember speaking to a Japanese person whose name was heard as "Hold my Johnson".  When I was on the phone with him, the three Turkish guys in the room burst into a laughter and I was forced to hang up immediately.

 Give click on the violet words and you will see the title of an article...

And some Turkish sentences soundslike a Japanese name.

Example: Tutsiki Koyama

Cant forget a place in Ankara called Dikmen...

Funny, hehe Dikmen, well there´s a café in the Izmir intercity bus terminal that has a big billboard that says  "MERDA Café"...for Romance speakers this is absolutely hilarious

_ Where are you from?

_ Im from BATMAN.

As you may know THY names its planes after Turkish cities, so yes, there´s a plane named "Batman", I saw it in the airport once

Sorry - didn´t realise that was a link 

During his spell as Besiktas coach, the famous Welsh soccer trainer Mr. Benjamin Toshack was quite amazed at seeing people smile at him when he said his name. He later learned that his name sounds like Mr. Testicles to Turkish ears...

And we all love some PEACH icecream, yum yum... I saw a waitor and an English man almost get into a fight once over that word.

Lucky me, the pronounciation of letters in Turkish and Dutch is almost the same, except for the C, G and U (and all those letters we don´t have)...and my name contains none of these letters

the turkish pronounce in arabic names is strange too

like the name Mohmmed in turkish pronounce Mehmet

it is very different to the arabic pronounce

Talking about Arabic words/names in Turkish, I had a big discussion about wether it is really ramaZan or ramaDan, which sounds the most like the original Arabic...Anybody know? I soooo want to be right about this one

that`s because they are considered two different names.

it`s ramazan in Turkish. I have no idea why they say ramadan in English or how it`s pronounced in Arabic

 In turkish is called Ramazan in arabic Ramadan.

 aha, so in Arabic it sounds like Ramdan, I was right  I love it when I´m right

One can then naturally assume Mehmet is a Turkish name. The name Muhammed is not unknown in Turkia,  and some Turks are indeed named Muhammed.

I would say both are correct. The "D" you have in the Arabic version does not sound like the letter "d" in Turkish. It is a letter peculiar to Arabic language and sounds something between Turkish "d" and Turkish "z".

 we learn something new everyday! thanx for the info

I always thought it is originally the same name but there are different variants

muhamad, mhamad, mohamad, mehmed, mehmet, mahomet ..etc

anyways, that brings to my mind a good book written by Washington Irving (1783-1859)  "Mahomet and His Successors" 

Bayramin Mubarek olsun

 Merhaba AlphaF

iwant know the difference between the two names and what this name (Mehmet  mean

thanks

There is a process called localization in every language. Loan words usually go through this process once they enter the language. Sometimes, old and new versions of a  loan word may co-exist.

Muhammad is a terrible word from a phonological point of view. To start with there are wovels which do not exist in our language. Therefore they need to be replaced by wovels sounding similar.  Even after this change, the word violates both major and minor wovel harmony rules entailing in the first case the use of only soft wovels with other soft wovels (e.g. e with i) and not allowing round and plain wovels to be used together in a word (e.g. u cannot be followed by a and not to mention "e" which is a total outrage).

In the end, we have a loan word in our language that we cannot be comfortable with unless we indulge in pronouncing our language the Arabic way. Since this name belongs to the prophet, there is not much to be done other than producing a Turkish version of the same noun  (Mehmet or Memed).

 thanks for your help

When I applied for Turkish citizenship the citizenship office would not accept my application because my UK passport said I was born in London, but my Turkish residence permit said I was born in Londra.

I had to get the police to change my residence permit to say London before I could submit my paperwork!

I have a friend called James who always pronounces his name with two syllables if he wants someone to write it down properly "Jam - mess" otherwise they write down Ceyms.