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Talking Turkey: The Story of How the Unofficial Bird of the United States Got Named After a Country
mymerhaba ^
| n/a
| Giancarlo Casale
Posted on 12/08/2004 5:33:57 AM PST by Turk2
click here to read article
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1
posted on
12/08/2004 5:33:57 AM PST
by
Turk2
To: Turk2; a_Turk; Shermy; knighthawk; Mortimer Snavely
2
posted on
12/08/2004 5:34:56 AM PST
by
Turk2
(Dulce bellum inexpertis)
To: Turk2
I spent the next few days finding out the word for turkey in as many languages as I could think of, and the more I found out, the weirder things got. In Arabic, for instance, the word for turkey s "Ethiopian bird," while in Greek it is "gallapoula" or "French girl." BWAHAAAAA!!!
3
posted on
12/08/2004 5:37:58 AM PST
by
Clemenza
(Gabba Gabba Hey!)
To: Turk2
Old Chris Columbus was looking for a shortcut to India, so when he arrived in America, he named the natives "Indians". It is a good thing he wasn't looking for a shortcut to Turkey.
4
posted on
12/08/2004 5:40:00 AM PST
by
Lokibob
(All typos and spelling errors are mine and copyrighted!!!!)
To: Turk2
![](http://pages.sbcglobal.net/atomicpossum/segami/apossum2.gif)
From dictionary.com:
[After Turkey, from a confusion with the guinea fowl, once believed to have originated in Turkish territory.]
Ten seconds, and no phone calls.
5
posted on
12/08/2004 5:40:44 AM PST
by
atomicpossum
(I am the Cat that walks by himself, and all places are alike to me.)
To: Turk2
Their meat saved the pilgrims from starvation during their first winter in New England.
Actually the Pilgrims survived the first winter because they stopped in Damariscove Island ME to buy fish (coddes) before heading south to MA.
6
posted on
12/08/2004 5:44:47 AM PST
by
ProudVet77
(Just say NO to blue states.)
To: Turk2
![](http://www.focusmm.com/turkey/birds/tr_b_076.gif)
(Scolopax Rusticola - Culluk)
7
posted on
12/08/2004 5:49:34 AM PST
by
Diogenesis
(Si vis pacem, para bellum)
To: Turk2
"Turkeys, heresy, hops and beer
Came into England all in one year."
8
posted on
12/08/2004 5:52:03 AM PST
by
AnAmericanMother
(. . . Ministrix of ye Chace (recess appointment), TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary . . .)
To: Diogenesis
Looks suspiciously like a "snipe" to me. Are you trying to send him on the infamous "snipe hunt?"
9
posted on
12/08/2004 5:55:54 AM PST
by
LOC1
To: Turk2
I call them "Freezer Eagles".
10
posted on
12/08/2004 6:00:33 AM PST
by
capt. norm
(Rap is to music what the Etch-A-Sketch is to art.)
To: capt. norm
Domestic turkeys are so dumb. They can drown in a rain storm because the stare upwards at the falling rain, their respiratory tract fills with rain water and pffft.
11
posted on
12/08/2004 6:10:47 AM PST
by
carumba
To: capt. norm
I LIKE your name for them!
LOL!
12
posted on
12/08/2004 6:11:00 AM PST
by
tiamat
("Just a Bronze-Age Gal, Trapped in a Techno-World!")
To: Turk2
Named after a country? I thought they were named after a deli meat?
13
posted on
12/08/2004 6:11:39 AM PST
by
Lou L
To: Turk2; farmfriend; Gabz; netmilsmom; solitas; mtbopfuyn; thtr; Motherbear; Esther Ruth; ...
Turk2, thanks for posting this! It's interesting!
4-H ping, you guys!
14
posted on
12/08/2004 6:13:26 AM PST
by
tiamat
("Just a Bronze-Age Gal, Trapped in a Techno-World!")
To: Turk2
"...because people had a hazier understanding of geography"What a courteous use of understatement!
Somehow I don't think the delicious chulluks consider their fate to be unfairly cruel. I suspect that they prefer a long life of obscurity and are hoping that this article has a short life of obscurity.
15
posted on
12/08/2004 6:15:25 AM PST
by
Savage Beast
(All right, Freepers! Back to bed! You owe it to the human race to reproduce as much as possible.)
To: Turk2
The author of this piece may have consulted with the wrong experts. I had always learned that the name of the bird has nothing to do with the country of Turkey at all.
Christopher Columbus started his trip to the New World (in search of a passage to India) on the same day in 1492 that the Jews were expelled from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella, whose marriage had united most of the Iberian peninsula. There were several Jews who joined his voyage. Among them was Luis de Torres, who was hired on as an interpreter: since Columbus expected to get to India he wanted someone who could translate, and Torres spoke several languages including Hebrew and Arabic. Torres was the first European to disembark from Columbus' boats.
The story was that Torres saw these wild birds and called them "tuki", adapting the Hebrew word for pheasant which is found in the book of I Kings at 10:22.
I understand that in Spanish a turkey is called el turqueo. It would be interesting for a Spanish speaker to confirm or deny this.
By the way, the expulsion of the Jews from Spain was met by a response from one leading Old World ruler, who remarked that the Spanish were throwing out their best citizens. This ruler then sent ships to the ports of Spain, offering free transport to any Jews who wanted to move to his country. Tens of thousands did so, beginning the Sephardic Jewish migration to the Eastern Mediterranean countries. That leader was the Sultan of...Turkey, whose Ottoman fighters had captured Istanbul from the Byzantines fewer than 50 years earlier.
16
posted on
12/08/2004 6:20:03 AM PST
by
Piranha
To: tiamat
Very interesting and rather amusing!
17
posted on
12/08/2004 6:20:17 AM PST
by
Gabz
To: Turk2
I don't get it. You think we're stoopid or something? If that's the case, then tell me, where is the country of Chicken? smartypants...
18
posted on
12/08/2004 6:22:22 AM PST
by
Hatteras
To: Hatteras
where is the country of Chicken?I believe its official name is France.
To: Gabz
20
posted on
12/08/2004 6:30:10 AM PST
by
tiamat
("Just a Bronze-Age Gal, Trapped in a Techno-World!")
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