3 ms·
Let's talk turkey, does it really matter?
by randomtoast 4mo ago
Let's talk turkey, does it really matter?
- triceratops 4mo agoDoes anything matter? If there are things that matter, grammar is one of those things.
- gacgacgac 4mo agoYes? The country is named Türkiye, we should use that name? The etymology here is interesting and has a looooong history. The country has officially been named Türkiye for over a century.
- jnwatson 4mo agoAnd Germany's official name is "Bundesrepublik Deutschland". I get to call it Germany though.
- triceratops 4mo agoBut not germany.
- marky1991 4mo agoThis sort of language policing is pointless.
- triceratops 4mo agoI mean it matters here. "turkey" and "Turkey" legitimately have different meanings.
- marky1991 4mo agoSo does 'mark' and 'Mark', that doesn't mean I correct everyone (or myself) every time they/I type my name without using a capital letter.
- triceratops 4mo agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48388057 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48388057
- BigGreenJorts 4mo agoOk but are there Wired articles about you?
- gacgacgac 4mo agoHas Germany said they should be called Deutschland by English speakers?
- IncreasePosts 4mo agoIs it a right of any nation to assert what other nations call it? Can America ask China to stop calling them 美国 (Měiguó) and call them the USA? The problem with the turkey rebranding is that it was a mere orthographic update, but it is using orthography that is very non standard(whatever that means for English), including using a diacritic rarely seen in English. I could get behind it more if they completely changed the name, like a when Swaziland switched to eswatini. But for now, you can pry turkey from my cold dead hands
- triceratops 4mo ago> But for now, you can pry turkey from my cold dead hands Big fan of Thanksgiving foods I see. (Do you see the real problem? Lowercasing a proper noun that has another meaning when lowercased. Turkey/Türkiye is just the cherry on top)
- patates 4mo agoIf you need an example, look at the Peking->Beijing transition.
- suddenlybananas 4mo agohttps://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pekin https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pekin Turkish still uses the old term. Why should I change my language to suit them if they won't do it for others.
- olalonde 4mo agoGermany's official English name is Germany[0]. [0] https://unterm.un.org/unterm2/en/view/745bbc2a-fc50-4b94-bb96-2ff7ed380081 https://unterm.un.org/unterm2/en/view/745bbc2a-fc50-4b94-bb9...
- tracerbulletx 4mo agoWords come from the people who use them. The name for a place is in the context of the language and culture that is using the word to reference it.
- suddenlybananas 4mo agoI will call them Turkiye when they call Greece Hellas, Germany Deutschland and China Zhongguo in Turkish.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- gacgacgac 4mo agoHave those countries made those requests?
- suddenlybananas 4mo agoYou and I both know that Turkey would never do such a thing.
- triceratops 4mo agoRegular Turkish people may not. The Turkish government, in official diplomatic communications, most certainly would if those countries requested it. I don't think we are required to start calling it Turkey in the vernacular. Regular Turkish people don't have to change their names for countries in their language either. I only pointed out Turkey/Türkiye in my original post to head off smart-asses. Using proper casing for the name is much more important.
- suddenlybananas 4mo agohttps://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pekin https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pekin Turkish doesn't seem to respect the wishes of the Chinese government with regard to Beijing.
- Lio 4mo agoYes, casing matters. It carries meaning. It's the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse. This headline makes it sound like the IT systems of a cosmetic surgeon have been attacked by poultry.
- burnt-resistor 4mo agoExactly. "Earth" means the planet we live on and "earth" means soil. The disrespect of the meaning conveyed by not using the correct case is noxious and sloppy.
- tedggh 4mo agoYou guys are being too case sensitive.
- gweinberg 4mo agoYes! I originally read the headline as "a turkey" because of the lack of a capital T. They can call themselves what they want, but it unreasonable of the Turks to expect English speakers to write their country's name with characters which are not part of our alphabet.
- triceratops 4mo agoYeah I'm not gonna type out the u with an umlaut (?) myself on an message board. If I were writing to the UN or to the Turkish embassy I'd copy-paste it. But lowercasing a proper noun is egregious.