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Why did şehir become city in Turkish?
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| 1. |
04 Feb 2014 Tue 11:06 pm |
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Merhaba.
I´ve been thinking on it for a long time. Perhaps someone knows an etymological explanation for this. Why the word "şehir" was adapted into Turkish as "a city" considering it probably comes from Arabic شهر [shahr] which means "a month" (as far as I know Arabic)?
Edited (2/4/2014) by sufler
Edited (2/4/2014) by sufler
Edited (2/4/2014) by sufler
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| 2. |
04 Feb 2014 Tue 11:27 pm |
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Merhaba.
I´ve been thinking on it for a long time. Perhaps someone knows an etymological explanation for this. Why the word "şehir" was adapted into Turkish as "a city" considering it probably comes from Arabic شهر [shahr] which means "a month" (as far as I know Arabic)?
Because it is a Farsi word. Şahr means city or land in Farsi language. Arabic one is a different word.
http://www.nisanyansozluk.com/?k=%C5%9Fehir&x=-1220&y=-238
Edited (2/4/2014) by gokuyum
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| 3. |
05 Feb 2014 Wed 01:45 am |
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Well, I didn´t know that!
And is the word in the other meanings (2. and 3. in the link you gave) also used in Turkish? Most of Turkish-English dictionaries give only city-related translations.
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| 4. |
05 Feb 2014 Wed 07:21 pm |
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As a side note, you can use "kent" instead of "şehir" in every context where şehir is legitimate
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| 5. |
05 Feb 2014 Wed 07:31 pm |
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Probably it´s historical reasons, dated back to Ottoman era, where even the turks didn´t speak turkish. Influenced heavily with other neighbouring regions tongues probably "şehir" is the only wide-known and available word for it.
Edited (2/5/2014) by cemmerven
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| 6. |
05 Feb 2014 Wed 08:34 pm |
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Probably it´s historical reasons, dated back to Ottoman era, where even the turks didn´t speak turkish. Influenced heavily with other neighbouring regions tongues probably "şehir" is the only wide-known and available word for it.
Turks always spoke Turkish cemmervan. Maybe some elite minority was talking Ottoman language, Farsi or Arabic among themselves. But in daily life they were speaking Turkish too.
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| 7. |
05 Feb 2014 Wed 08:41 pm |
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Well, I didn´t know that!
And is the word in the other meanings (2. and 3. in the link you gave) also used in Turkish? Most of Turkish-English dictionaries give only city-related translations.
1. Şehir means city in Turkish. It doesnt mean country or state any more.
2. We dont use şehir this way. We say meşhur. They have the same root.
3. Şehir means appearing, appearing of the new moon in Arabic. I guess that is why month means şehir in Arabic. We dont use Arabic word "şehir". We have a Turkish word for that as you know. It is "ay". It is the Turkish word for moon and month.
Edited (2/5/2014) by gokuyum
Edited (2/5/2014) by gokuyum
Edited (2/5/2014) by gokuyum
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| 8. |
06 Feb 2014 Thu 12:05 am |
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1. Şehir means city in Turkish. It doesnt mean country or state any more.
2. We dont use şehir this way. We say meşhur. They have the same root.
3. Şehir means appearing, appearing of the new moon in Arabic. I guess that is why month means şehir in Arabic. We dont use Arabic word "şehir". We have a Turkish word for that as you know. It is "ay". It is the Turkish word for moon and month.
Oh yeah, that´s exactly what I thought.
That´s why I was surprised these two meanings were listed in Turkish etymological dictionary if they are not used in Turkish at all.
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| 9. |
06 Feb 2014 Thu 02:20 am |
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Oh yeah, that´s exactly what I thought.
That´s why I was surprised these two meanings were listed in Turkish etymological dictionary if they are not used in Turkish.
1) I havent seen şehir used in the meaning of famous. But maybe it was used in Ottoman language.That is why it is in the dictionary.
2)You can still witness the use of "şehir" in the meaning of "month". It is very rare. Only example I know is this: In Ramadans you can see a sentence on the top of mosques saying "Hoşgeldin Ya Şehr-i Ramazan(Welcome o month of Ramadan)".
Edited (2/6/2014) by gokuyum
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