I’ve looked quickly through
the initial dialogues in the lessons in volume one of the Turkish course, and
noted the following words as being possibly a bit old-fashioned:
unit 5: estağfurullah -- I don’t think younger Turks use this
expression much, but there’s really no more modern word to replace it, and it
does fit very nicely to express humility when people compliment you, etc. It will be much appreciated by older people,
and possibly people of an Islamic bent, but will sound somewhat old-fashioned
to the younger generation.
unit 8: umumiyetle – Most Turks these days say “genellikle”;
some 30 years ago, I remember being complimented effusively by an older gentleman
for using this Arabic-derived word, which he though extremely elegant in
contrast to “genellikle”, which was then taking hold among younger people. He pronounced this word with utter scorn, as
an abomination to the Turkish language.
Nowadays, though, “umumiyetle” is distinctly old-fashioned, and has been
almost universally replaced by “genellikle”.
unit 9: doldurmak – this is the normal word for “to
fill” in most contexts, but in gas stations, many people use “ful yapmak” (from
the English “full”).
unit 11 – sefaret – this Arabic
word has now been replaced almost entirely by “elçilik” or “büyükelçilik”.
unit 13 – kafi – often replaced
by the verb “yetmek” (“to suffice’) and various forms such as “yeter” or “yeterli”. “Kafi” is still a bit more polite in certain
contexts, though, such as when someone is serving you food, in which context “yeter”
is sort of brusque.
unit 14 – isim – younger Turks
tend to use “ad” for “name” more than “isim”, although I would say they’re
still interchangeable.
unit 15 – müsaade – a bit
old-fashioned, but still considered more elegant in situations of courtesy than
its modern Turkish equivalent, “izin”. “İzninizle”
can replace “müsaadenizle”. “Hariciyeci”
has entirely disappeared, I think, and been replaced by “diplomat”.
unit 16 – seyahat -- still in
use, but “yolculuk” is probably more common these days.
unit 17 – takdim etmek – old-fashioned,
but still in use. “Sunmak” is more
common in most contexts these days for “present” or “offer”. “Evvela” is less common nowadays than “önce” (“beforehand”)
or “ilk önce” (“first of all”).
unit 18 – müşerref olmak –
has mostly disappeared, but impresses the hell out of people if you use it. Normally, in being introduced to people of
your own age/status, “memnun oldum” works fine, or sometimes just a simple “merhaba”
if the situation is informal. But if you
meet the president or someone of stature, “müşerref oldum” goes over very well. But it’s really only appropriate, I think, in
case where it makes sense to say you’re HONORED to meet someone. “Beyefendi” has almost dropped out of use
except when you’re trying to be obsequious (or sarcastic), sort of like “sir”
in the non-southern/non-military US.
The shorter “efendim” is still used widely however in polite conversations.
unit 19 – derhal – still used,
but less common these days than “hemen”
unit 20 – kıymetli – much less
common than “değerli”
unit 22 – tehirli – not used;
replaced by adjective “gecikmeli” or verb “gecikmek” (“to be late’), or in
cases of planes and the like, “rötarlı”.
“Yazıhane” strikes me as old-fashioned as well; I would use “ofis”.
unit 25 – mani olmak – used much
less these days than “engellemek”
unit 26 – iade etmek – still
understood, but largely replaced these days by “geri vermek” (“to give back”), “geri
götürmek” (“to take back [to a place or person]”), etc.
unit 27 – zannetmek – still understood,
but used much less frequently than its counterpart, “sanmak”. Likewise, “defa” has largely given way to “kere”
or “kez”. “Evlad” is old-fashioned, and is
really only used by older people in addressing younger people, as in the
dialogue. Don’t use it as the standard
word for “child”.
I’m happy to defer to any
native Turkish speakers who might care to chime in, but from my quick look
through the dialogues (and ignoring any vocabulary items that might have been
introduced elsewhere within the various chapters), it seems to me that there’s
roughly one word per unit that’s a bit outmoded, even though almost all of those
I’ve cited should be understood by, and acceptable to, almost any educated
adult Turk. As you can see, in most
cases it’s a matter of replacing older, Arabic- or Persian-origin words by their
modern Turkish equivalents, and in most cases, both words co-exist in different
registers and among people of different age-groups. The older words are often seen as more
elegant by older people, and as “old-fogey-ish” by younger people, but I think
that anyone with a serious interest in Turkish should still at least be
familiar passively with all the words I listed, since they are still in use to
a degree.
I’m struck in reviewing the
first volume of the course with how much of the dialogue materials deal with polite
formulas and pleasantries; these sorts of things are essential for diplomats,
so it’s easy to see why they were included.
I suspect, without having checked yet, that more of the vocabulary in
volume two, which gets more substantive, will seem old-fashioned or
obsolete. Still, I think that the FSI materials
offer a great deal of very useful Turkish for people who work through
them.
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