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Pidgin Turkish Trivia Quiz

I spent more than seven years as an ex-pat in Istanbul. The Turkish language is very different from English or my native German, I never achieved fluidity, but I did pick up some Pidgin Turkish. And I bet there are some words or expressions you know, too

A multiple-choice quiz by malama. Estimated time: 4 mins.

Author
malama

Time
4 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
372,725

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Tough

Avg Score
6 / 10

Plays
183

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. One of the first things I noticed about Turkish is that there are many foreign words. In particular, many modern technical expressions were adopted from French. With that in mind, what is the Turkish word for motor bike? Hint

Motosiklet

Kalorifer

At�lye

Asans�r

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Question 2 of 10

2. Another language which gave a lot of loan words to Turkish is Arabic. An Arabic word meaning "owner" has also made it into Hindi and other languages of the Indian sub-continent - in a slightly mutated form - and from there into English. What is the Turkish word for "owner"? Hint

Beyaz

Sahip

Misafir

Kitap

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Question 3 of 10

3. The other way round, Turkish has inspired many quite common English words. Of the following choices, which word is NOT of Turkish origin? Hint

Yoghurt

Pastrami

Kefir

Salami

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Question 4 of 10

4. What is the Turkish word for "lion"? Readers of C. S. Lewis might be able to guess the answer to this one. Hint

Kedi

Kaplan

Aslan

Pars

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Question 5 of 10

5. You may have used Turkish Airlines to vacation in Turkey, or used Istanbul Atat�rk Airport as a hub for further reaching travel. Their acronym THY comes from their Turkish name "T�rk Hava Yollari". What does "T�rk Hava Yollari" literally mean? Hint

British Airways

Turkish Airways

Turkish United Airways

Turkish Transport Service

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Question 6 of 10

6. Turkish is an agglutinative language - many syllables can be "glued" to the end of one word to indicate the grammatical function of the word or to make a new word. You can even put one complete English sentence into one Turkish word.
What are these syllables called? Hint

Multiplexes

Complexes

Afflixes

Suffixes

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Question 7 of 10

7. Enough grammar, I never learned that much anyway. But I always had fun with the vocabulary. Besides numbers, colors are good to learn in the beginning. What is the Turkish word for "blue"? Hint

Kahverengi

Gri

Bej

Mavi

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Question 8 of 10

8. Also important in any language are words for food! Which of the ingredients for a very basic Turkish breakfast is bread? Hint

Domates

Beyaz peynir

Salatalik

Ekmek

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Question 9 of 10

9. A trip to Kapali�arshi (the Grand Bazaar) is always exciting. A particular challenge is to decline the offers of the very eager vendors, especially when you come quite early and the bazaar is not yet crowded and the vendors can be very insistent. You may end up wasting a lot of time or buying stuff you don't really want.
Which of these is a very efficient way to let the vendor know that you are not interested? Hint

Saying "Hayir, teshekk�r ederim!"

Calling the police

Running away

Rolling your eyes to your left and slightly upwards while clicking your tongue

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Question 10 of 10

10. Before I leave you with this bit of pidgin Turkish, one more question. Of the following choices, three are phrases you could use to say goodbye, one is used to say hello. Which one is used for hello? Hint

Iyi g�nler

Merhaba

G�le g�le

Hosh�a kal

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

Answer: Motosiklet

Motosiklet is right. The other options were studio/atelier for "at�lye", heating/radiator for "kalorifer", and lift for "asans�r".
Many of these give you a surprise when you decode the strange spelling and you realize you actually know or can deduce the word. Otopark is another good one, have a guess!

Answer: Sahip

"Sahip" is the right choice, and has the same root as "sahib". But the other words also come from Arabic: "beyaz" means white, "misafir" is guest and "kitap" means book.

3. The other way round, Turkish has inspired many quite common English words. Of the following choices, which word is NOT of Turkish origin?

Answer: Salami

The word "salami" is of Italian origin, whereas the word "pastrami" is indeed of Turkish origin. The actual Turkish word is "pastirma", which even the spell checker recognizes as "pastrami". Pastrami is dry cured beef, which is usually coated with a thick paste containing mainly fenugreek.

4. What is the Turkish word for "lion"? Readers of C. S. Lewis might be able to guess the answer to this one.

Answer: Aslan

Well, fittingly C. S. Lewis named the lion "Aslan". The other choices are animals, in fact cats, too. "Kaplan" means tiger, "pars" is leopard (actually just recently a Turkish snow leopard has been spotted again and sadly - killed), and "kedi" simply is the word for cat.

Answer: Turkish Airways

"Yol" means way, "yollar" means ways, and "hava yollari" means airways. You may remember the Turkish movie "Yol", aka "The Way", which in 1982 won the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival.

Answer: Suffixes

These suffixes in Turkish are a real pest. To decipher a word, you need to find out where the word root ends and the suffixes begin and then you can try to think about the word root and whether it is in your vocabulary. And then there are so many different suffixes. Take for example "evindeyim".

It means "I am at your house". But only the little syllable "ev" is the word for your house, the rest are suffixes. "in" to indicate it is about your house, "de" for "at", and "yim" for "I am". Technically there is no limit to the number of suffixes you can hang onto a word and you can give very complex information within one word. Just for illustration purposes: "yaramazlastIrIlamIyabilenlerdenmissiniz" means "you seem to be one of those who is incapable of being naughty", all in one word.

7. Enough grammar, I never learned that much anyway. But I always had fun with the vocabulary. Besides numbers, colors are good to learn in the beginning. What is the Turkish word for "blue"?

Answer: Mavi

As you may have guessed, "gri" is gray, "bej" is beige, "kahverengi" is brown (coffee colored), but "mavi" means blue.

8. Also important in any language are words for food! Which of the ingredients for a very basic Turkish breakfast is bread?

Answer: Ekmek

"Beyaz peynir" literally means "white cheese" - called feta in Greek - salatalik means cucumber in English, and of course "domates" is tomatoes. "Ekmek" is Turkish for bread. Still missing here are olives (zeytin). No coffee, Turkish breakfast usually includes tea. Coffee comes later and actually the Turkish word for breakfast is "kahvalti", "the meal before one has coffee".

9. A trip to Kapali�arshi (the Grand Bazaar) is always exciting. A particular challenge is to decline the offers of the very eager vendors, especially when you come quite early and the bazaar is not yet crowded and the vendors can be very insistent. You may end up wasting a lot of time or buying stuff you don't really want. Which of these is a very efficient way to let the vendor know that you are not interested?

Answer: Rolling your eyes to your left and slightly upwards while clicking your tongue

Running away or calling the police - who are patrolling the bazaar constantly, but more to scare off pickpockets - is of course not necessary. The very polite "Hayir, teshekk�r ederim!" is quite overdoing it and also a bit of a mouthful. Most efficient would be to roll you eyes as described. You can also try saying "yok, merci" (Istanbul speak for "no thanks") or just smile and walk ahead, but DO keep walking.

Answer: Merhaba

"Merhaba" is a informal greeting like hello. "Hosh�a kal", "g�le g�le", and "iyi g�nler" all can be used as "good bye". There is also one more formal way of farewell greeting: "allahaismarladik".

Source: Author malama

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor stedman before going online.
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