When I first moved to Izmir nearly a year and a half ago, several people told me that I spoke like an "Istanbullu" (a person from Istanbul). I remember thinking, how can that be possible? My Turkish a) isn't all that good, and b) I couldn't discern any noticeable difference between Istanbul Turkish and Izmir Turkish. It wasn't until I had been in Izmir for a while that I understood what they meant.
It wasn't how I said it that was different; it was what I said that was different.
There are a few things in Izmir that are not called what I was taught to call them.
The biggest one for me to get used to was that simit -- that awesomely amazing sesame-breaded bagel-like thing that goes oh so well with beyaz peynir -- is NOT simit in Izmir. It is gevrek.
Let me point out here that simit and gevrek are the exact same thing. It's just that in Izmir, they call simit gevrek. Which confused the hell out of me when I first moved there and wondered why the simit guys were calling out "Gevrek! Gevrek!" as they passed my apartment.
At the pazar, I noticed that corn was not called mısır, as I was taught to call it, but darı. Weid, right? It's like being in an alternate universe.
And the word for fig is not incir in Izmir; it's bardacık. Which is just absurd. Why say bardacık when incir is so much easier to pronounce?
And apparently -- I didn't know this last one until I was at my local bar and saw this particular sign -- çekirdek (seeds) in Istanbul is actually called çiğdem in Izmir. I didn't actually know this one, as I never ask for çekirdek in a bar.
Are there any Turkish words that you've learned that don't quite apply to where you live? I'm so curious to know if there are any other places like Izmir that stand out from the rest!
Domates is DOMAT in Izmir, Çingene iz Çingen, Çirkin iz Çikin in İzmir.. And also verbs.... for instance; gidiyorum, geliyorum etc.. are pronunced with all of their letters in Istanbul but they are pronunced as GIDIYOM, GELIYOM ETC..in IZMIR... You do not pronounce that last R and the vowel that follows R in if it is used in e verb in Izmir. I guess these are enough...
Posted by: Vladimir | Thursday, 03 February 2011 at 00:04
Interesting! I'm going to ask around about this. I know this is the case in Germany too. There are many different words (mostly food that I know) that are different in different areas, e.g., Augsburg vs. Wurtenburg.
Posted by: Terry | Thursday, 03 February 2011 at 08:18
The Fethiye simitçi must hedge his bets. He shouts Gevrek Simit. Like Vladimir said, we say, 'Ne yapyon?' instead of, 'Ne yapiyorsun?' etc, but I guess that's just being lazy. The main problem we face in Fethiye is the accent and then Kayaköy, the village up the road, has it's own dialect on top of that accent. Turkish friends from out of town can't understand our Kaya friends.
At least I now realise why I couldn't understand the waiter the last time we drove through Izmir and stopped at a lokanta there. :)
Julia
Posted by: turkey's for life | Thursday, 03 February 2011 at 08:33
I was teased for ages after I moved to Istanbul after 2 years of relative linguistic isolation in Kayseri. Yes, I said things like N'oruyon and N'apiyon and whatnot, and I used a lot of Arabic-based words (like Shukran as well as tesekkurler). There were pronunciation issues (they are very throaty/nasal), syntax issues... I kind of had to relearn Turkish. Now I can't quite keep them straight.
Posted by: MaryAnne | Thursday, 03 February 2011 at 09:34
Ah yes! I had forgotten about domates and domat! I see that at the pazar every once in a while. Perhaps the dropping of the R in so many verbs is a big factor in why I can't understand so many Izmirlis and why I CAN understand so many Istanbullus!
Posted by: Barbara J. Isenberg | Thursday, 03 February 2011 at 14:12
It's so funny, isn't it? I mean, we are literally talking about the exact same things but they are called two different words. It's not like the difference between "biscuit" and "roll", two things that, while similar, are quite different. In this case, it really is the exactly same thing.
Posted by: Barbara J. Isenberg | Thursday, 03 February 2011 at 14:13
Funnily enough, I've had workers at the bakery tell me when I have asked for simit "Hey, this isn't Istanbul! This is Izmir! We call it gevrek!" They say it in a joking manner but it is clear they are proud of the fact that in Izmir they call it something else, which I think they think must be better than the Istanbul way or something. That said, Izmirlis generally take pride in the differences between it and the rest of Turkey (hence the photos above which I took in my local bar).
Posted by: Barbara J. Isenberg | Thursday, 03 February 2011 at 14:16
Ah I hadn't thought about the other way around! What if you learn Turkish in a place like Batman or Mardin or Kayseri? And then come to Istanbul where everyone -- unless they are also from those places -- just laughs and calls you a hillbilly? Ah well, one can never win! I figure as long as people understand me, then I am ahead of the game! No matter what my accent is!
Posted by: Barbara J. Isenberg | Thursday, 03 February 2011 at 14:18
Haha.... I love it! I love İzmir & Istanbul, but I will not speak most of the İzmir "argo".
Where did you find those signs in your pictures! I got quite a chuckle out of them! :-D
Posted by: Nıcole | Thursday, 03 February 2011 at 14:32
Hiya! I saw those signs at a local bar in Bostanlı called Cerveza. The pictures reminded me that I really needed to do a post about the differences in language and now I had the visuals to do it!
Posted by: Barbara J. Isenberg | Thursday, 03 February 2011 at 15:16
LOL ... love it! I will have to go to that bar sometime before I leave!
Posted by: Nıcole | Thursday, 03 February 2011 at 15:21
It's a great place! It's also a dart bar -- that's their thing -- and it's so much more fun to hang out there and drink Efes, watching people play darts or play yourself! The address is: Cemal Gürsel Caddesi No: 472/A, Bostanlı / İZMİR. They're also on facebook, just search for Cerveza!
Posted by: Barbara J. Isenberg | Thursday, 03 February 2011 at 15:31
Izmirish --> priceless!!!
There is a folk singer/story teller that passed away, called Ozay Gonlum, who symbolizes the speech patterns and the culture of the region. Look it up and you'll especially enjoy his stories as he channels his grandmother..
My dad is from around there as well.. and the one thing he told me about incir many many years ago is that it is called "yemi$" in the region, and that if I ever visit there, I should never use the word incir, as that refers to the female anatomy that resembles the fruit in question.. what do I know?
Posted by: Arif | Thursday, 03 February 2011 at 20:45
I will have to look up Ozay Gonlum! And, uh, I had no idea about the other meaning for incir! Hilarious!
Posted by: Barbara J. Isenberg | Friday, 04 February 2011 at 09:49
Those signs are fantastic!
Posted by: Stranger | Sunday, 06 February 2011 at 16:40
Incir and "Bardacik " are not the same. They are both figs, but bardacik has a long neck and tastes slightly less sweet than incir.or yemis as it is called around Aydin. If you went o a greengrocer and asked for incir, he will give you the round sweet kind. Ask for bardacik, which is a delicacy amongst figs, and you have to pay twice as much.
Cigdem is sunflower seed while cekirdek is pumpkin seed.
Posted by: filiz kalfaoglu | Monday, 07 February 2011 at 13:59
I was wondering where you got the photos from. They're great. I can't believe they're actually in a bar. Funny! :) We have some friends in Fethiye who are from Izmir and they're always telling us we should go there because it's so much better than Istanbul. It figures.
Posted by: turkey's for life | Friday, 18 February 2011 at 19:51
Hahahahah! I wouldn't say that Izmir is better than Istanbul per se, but it is definitely different!
Posted by: Barbara J. Isenberg | Saturday, 19 February 2011 at 09:56
In Urfa they speak Urfaci--it is a very funny accent! Among other things, instead of 'bana' and 'sana' they say 'biye' and 'siye'. If the people I talked to are any indicator, they are also quite proud of their local language quirks. :)
Posted by: Amanda Pearson | Sunday, 20 February 2011 at 14:48
Yes, the people here in Izmir are quite proud of their little quirks too! Anything to set themselves apart from the Istanbullus!
Posted by: Barbara J. Isenberg | Sunday, 20 February 2011 at 17:59
Bardacık is a special kind of incir. We say simit if it's soft, but if it's crunchy we say gevrek. İn fact gevrek means crunchy.
Çiğdem is the seed of sunflower, çekirdek is the seed of pumpkin. They are different things. OK ?
You forgot writing 'klorak'. We call all kinds of bleach as klorak not çamaşır suyu :) But all of uz say selpak (not handkerchief) There are some words like this.
Posted by: medura | Friday, 27 May 2011 at 15:54
In Istanbul, cekirdek refers to both the sunflower seed (ay cekirdegi) and pumpkin seed (kabak cekirdegi). I don't get where the hell is cigdem coming from :)
Posted by: Istanbullu | Saturday, 23 July 2011 at 19:26