But obviously you can´t say

*Nijerya iç savaş sürdü

*Tencere yemek pişiyor.

Why does it remind me of our favourite topic ergativity? I can´t catch the thought now. Of course it is not direct object that we are playing with but another modifier of the predicate. But on the other hand participle structures are not too pedantic with the classification of the modifier anyway, I mean an undirect object takes a participle modifier just as well as a direct object:

Kamyonetin gence çarptığı an Muğla´nın Bodrum ilçesinde, karşıdan karşıya geçerken kamyonetin çarptığı genç ağır yaralandı.

Komşuların baktığı 81 yaşındaki yaşlı çocuklarının vefasızlığından yakındı.

My Try:

I wish he just said whatever he has to say and it was over as soon as possible.

I think both dese, bitse and gitse are wishes but I can’t really understand if something in the structure of the sentence forces one to think so or not. But my guess is bitse and gitse belong together like the idiom bitti gitti.

http://www.uludagsozluk.com/k/bitti-gitti/

http://istanbulungazetesi.com/haber_detay.asp?haberID=1504

Fatihin İstanbulu fethi

I thought I read a newspaper column. It turned out to be the exact Vikipedi text copy pasted to their site. No one even bothered to separate the headlines from the text. Maybe it’s better if they understand not to write themselves.

Anyway.

The article describes the crucial days and weeks before and after May 29, 1453 when the Ottomans finally conquered Istanbul. Constantinopole of Byzantine had lived under Ottoman pressure for a long time but with the support of Europe it had survived many attempts and many sultans. Until the 21-year-old Mehmed II.

The sultan spent months preparing for the conquest. Cannons were developed, roads were built strong enough to carry heavy armour. The Rumelian Castle was built on the shore of Bosphorus opposite to the Anatolian Castle in order to ensure the encirclement of Constantinople. At the same time a peaceful solution was searched. This was the Sultan’s message to Constantine XI Palaiologos:

“Padişahım Murad Han oğlu Mehmed Han, şehri kayıtsız şartsız teslim etmenizi ister. Şayet şehri teslim ederseniz kimsenin burnu kanamayacaktır. Bütün maiyetinizle dilediğiniz yere gitmekte serbest olacaksınız. Dinimiz, karşı koymayan düşmana iyi muamaele etmeyi emreder.” Sultan Murad’s son Mehmed wants the city to surrender unreserved and unconditionally. If you surrender the city no one will have even a nosebleed. You will be free to go to any place you wish with your escort. Our religion orders to treat well those enemies who don’t oppose.

(Rumelian Castle)

There was no way to avoid the war. The most difficult part for the Ottoman army was entering the Golden Horn. An innovative solution was used: 

Mehmed, donanmanın karadan yürütülüp Haliç´e indirilebileceğni belirtti. Mehmed told that the navy will be taken to the Golden Horn walking over dry land.

(painting by Fausto Zonaro)

The fighting was bloody. The city was circled with a wall and there were other horrors also:

“Sel gibi kan akıttık. Elbette bunun bedeli ağırdır. Şehir iyi korunuyor. Lağımlarımızı anında haber alıp patlatıyorlar. Büyük kulelerimizi yakıyorlar. Üstümüze kaynar katran döküyorlar. Macar ordusu ile Venedik donanmasının yolda olduğunu haber aldı. Üstümüze gelirler.” We have bled like a stream. Certainly the price of this is high. The city is well protected. They will make our mines explode as soon as they notice. They will destroy our great towers. They will pour boiling tar over us. They are told Hungarian army and Navy of Venice are on their way. They will come over us.

Preparing for the final fight was started by fasting and praying. Mehmed II personally took part in the war manouvres. Finally he rode into the city as “the Conqueror”.

Açılan gediklerin kapatılamaması ve Osmanlı ordusunun topyekün saldırısı karşısında Konstantinopolis, 29 Mayıs 1453 Salı günü II. Mehmed´in önderliğindeki Osmanlı birliklerine teslim oldu. Konstantinopolis´in alınması ile birlikte topların deldiği surlardan içeri giren II. Mehmed, halkın sevgi gösterisi ile karşılandı. Bu fetihten sonra II. Mehmed, Fatih unvanını aldı ve Fatih Sultan Mehmed olarak anılmaya başladı. In view of not being able to close the gaps that had been opened (in the city walls) and the total attack of the Ottoman army, on Tuesday May 29, 1453 Constantinopole surrendered to the Ottoman units which were led by Mehmed II. Sultan Mehmed entered through the walls which had been pierced by the cannons while Constantinopole was conquered. He met the people’s expressions of love. After this victory Mehmed II took the title Conqueror and from now on he was called Mehmed the Conqueror.

It is for Prophet Muhammad. He has many names mentioned even in the Qur´an. One of them is Mustafa which means ´the chosen one´. Probably Taha also refers to him but I can´t remember what it means.

That´s what I suspected, thanks tunci. I´ll fix it in a minute...

Thanks for the correction, AlphaF. I was careless.

There is longing for you in the minds,

the hearts are beating from love for you.

Without you the world is narrow for us,

greetings to you, holy, beloved.

You are the remedy of all pains,

a voice risen from the skies.

Let lives be sacrificed for you.

You are the last Messenger, Taha,

greetings to you, oh Mustafa.

Arabs, Iranis all became one.

Fight, hostility have come to their end.

Love became the language of mankind.

Greetings to you, light of the eyes!

Darkness has come to an end,

the face of the oppressed began to laugh.

Mercy has descended over the universe.

Greetings to you, Exalted Prophet,

greetings to you, oh Beloved.

(My Try.)

Now that you mentioned it, yes, there is actually an interesting short-cut in the relative clause

iç savaş süren Nijeriya’da

If I tried to translate it e-t I would probably use the personal participle iç savaşın sürdüğü Nijeriya’da. It must be some kind of a borderline case as both alternatives are acceptable. It looks like playing with subject roles which is probably easier with infinite than finite forms. I knew –dik- participle is flexible but it’s the first time I see –en- participle modify anything but its logical subject (well, no wonder because I didn’t notice it).

Thank you, si++. Why don’t you provide us with some more tricky sentences?

Hello, Hindistan. I just tried to be simple and clear. It´s not my strongest point.

Once I messed something and someone told me Rahat ol. I liked it.

My Try:

Place WHO SAYS in the beginning and SAYS in the end, SAYS WHAT in the middle.

Pay attention to two words in the reported speech: the subject and the predicate of the embedded [] sentence:

Ahmedinejad, [Batı´nın İran´ın gücünden korktuğunu] söyledi. ‘Ahmedinejad said the West is afraid of Iran’s power.’

The case of the embedded subject is genitive:

Batı|’nin = stem + genitive ending

Personal participles are used in reported speech. Their marking is –ecek- (future) and –dik- (other tenses). Look what other stuff is added to the participle:

kork|tuğ|u|n|u = stem + participle marking + possessive suffix sg 3^rd + pronominal –n- + accusative ending