Surprisingly it works to some extent, maybe because every syntactic function is marked in Turkish.

Where this method leaves you in trouble is when you try to translate indefinite compounds. It shows in the pre-/postposition structure on the first line of this text. Wasn´t it exactly compounds which was the most alien structure in old Turkish texts?

A good translator uses every possible source.

Too much to ask.

What a good standard language can do is to unite the nation, so that people from Diyarbakır and Istanbul understand the same TV show.

A common literary language should be as close to people´s speech as possible. In many countries like in Turkey it is based on the local dialect of the (previous or present) capital but shares features from many local dialects.

If literary language is too distant from people´s daily speech it is an obstacle of learning for the majority. I am thinking about languages like Arabic whose literal form is considered holy and unchangeable. But this is my opinion only.

Bravo, tomac. I tried it but it seemed sooo difficult.

Only few derivational suffixes are transparent so that we could see from the building of the word what it exactly means by segmenting it into its parts. The only thing we can usually say is the word class it belongs to. kayık ´boat´, kayak ´ski´ and kaydırak ´slide´ all come from the same root kay- ´to slide´. We know they are nominals but how the meaning is derived from the root does not show.

If derivational suffixes were transparent they would be grammatical markers wouldn´t they?

What a linguist does when she makes up a new word using the derivational system of a certain language is giving this derivated form a history which actually does not exist. It is not so extraordinary. Believe it or not, ordinary speakers often do the same thing (being inspired by a foreign model for instance  -  even if there is no gap in the language that needs to be filled).

All Christmas traditions (except maybe the Christmas card which is a newcomer) are of paganic origin. Priests taught people ok keep following them but give them a new meaning. This is how human concepts often work.

Islam had another message: leave them and do not create new ones.

Celebrating New Year is no more an Islamic tradition.

I mean people may follow whatever paths they wish but it would be nice if they knew what they are doing.

I am not sure but it reminds me of this poem:

24 Eylül 1945 

En güzel deniz: 
Henüz gidilmemiş olanıdır. 
En güzel çocuk: 
Henüz büyümedi. 
En güzel günlerimiz: 
Henüz yaşamadıklarımız. 
Ve sana söylemek istediğim en güzel söz: 
Henüz söylememiş olduğum sözdür... 

Nazım Hikmet Ran

 

 

The most beautiful sea:
                   hasn´t been crossed yet.
The most beautiful child:
                   hasn´t grown up yet.
Our most beautiful days:
                   we haven´t seen yet.
And the most beautiful words I wanted to tell you
                   I haven´t said yet...

 

(Sorry, I don´t know who the translator is.)

How about translating some small dialogues like

- I was locked out of my apartment last night.             

- How did THAT happen?  Did you lose your keys?   

- No.  I left the keys in the apartment.    

- Then how did you get in?                     

- I climbed in from the window.             

- You what?  Oh, my!  You´re brave.      

- Thank you.  In fact, I didn´t realize I was such a good climber.

 ***********************

- May I help you?              

- Yes. Do you have these shoes in size seven?             

- I´m not sure.  If you can´t find them on the rack, they may be out of stock.  But let me look in the stockroom.                      

- Thanks. I´d like to try on a pair if you have them.      

- I´ll be right back.

************************

- Good evening, sir.  May I help you?    

- Yes.  What kind of rooms do you have?                    

- How large is your party?

- Three.  Two adults and one child.        

- Let´s see. We have a room with two double beds.  How many nights?                

- Just one.  We´re only staying overnight.

****************************

(http://www.focusenglish.com/dialogues/conversation.html)

In spite of the fact that there are more than 7000 different languages spoken in the world it has been estimated that if you know 9 of them you can communicate with 90 per cent of the world´s population in everyday situations. These languages are Chinese, Hindi, Arabic, Spanish, Russian, Urdu, French, Japanese and English.

http://tukopamoja.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/9-languages-for-90-of-the-worlds-population/

(Çağan Irmak, 2005)

Maybe a touching story but not a great movie in my opinion. Too romantic, does not stand against a single prejudice of the audience. Maybe enlightens the Turkish ideal of a big family which opens its arms to its most peculiar members but in my opinion does this in a too obvious way without challenging the watcher. It is the easiest thing in the world to make a sad story about people who die too early.

Hümeyra Akbay´s intensive presence was great.

If I cried it was just because I had something in my eye...