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Turkish language has a gossip tense

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Re: Turkish language has a gossip tense

#91

Post by sedatk »

darkhorn wrote: post #77

For first time I hear it as "gossip tense". Actually it is "a tense that you did not witness yourself" or officially "learned past tense".

Yes, I coined the term myself (as I mention it later in the thread) because I thought it explained its function better. This was the thread that I first used it: https://x.com/esesci/status/1666152424564719639

Now that I looked for it, others apparently came up with the same name for it before me. I think, that only validates its how apt it is :)

Re: Turkish language has a gossip tense

#93

Post by jofla_net »

nickjj wrote: post #86

I know very little about speaking Turkish but one interesting thing I learned recently is there's a different word for aunt and uncle depending on if it's your mom or dad's side.

I like to think that has to do with how strong family and 'extended' family ties are, relative to English speaking countries. When you spend soo much time with relatives you need more distinction. Theres even different words for the various forms of 'in-laws', sister-in-law, spouse of sister-in-law, etc.

Theres a lot of "onto" mapping, things converging when translated, in both directions.

Conversely as a counterexample, the turkish word kalmak, which is to stay, is used broadly in many instances where in English the most correct translation would use verbs such as "to remain", "to be left", in addition to the most straightforward "to stay".

Re: Turkish language has a gossip tense

#94

Post by shultays »

depressedpanda wrote: post #89
nickjj wrote: post #86

I know very little about speaking Turkish but one interesting thing I learned recently is there's a different word for aunt and uncle depending on if it's your mom or dad's side.

I think that might be quite common. In Swedish we have morbror/farbror (literally mother-brother/father-brother) and moster/faster (mother's sister/father's sister). It's similar for grandparents.

Turkish also has distinct words for grandmothers that works in a similar way. Father is baba, mother is anne and for grandmothers we have "babaanne" "anneanne" (generally pronounced & shortened as "babane" and "anane")

But interestingly no distinct words for grandfathers, both grandfathers are called "dede" (so no "babababa" or "annebaba")

Re: Turkish language has a gossip tense

#95

Post by k__ »

seszett wrote: post #87
k__ wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a German speaker, I understand those issues. I currently learn Spanish, and I'm always amused by how regular everything is. In German, words constantly get split up and change positions in the sentences when you say something slightly different. Du sprichst Deutsch. Sprichst du Deutsch? Vs Hablas Español. ¿Hablas Español? Also, most Germans don't like speaking German with people who don't speak it well. Probably,…

And in French... Tu parles français Tu parles français ? Parles-tu français ? Est-ce-que tu parles français ? I guess it's the best of both worlds. The French like to hear foreigners speak French though, they're just terrible at understanding accents they don't hear often and terrible at adjusting their speech so the other person understands them. And too self conscious about their English accent to speak English.

I only heard bad things about the French and their language, but I never met a unfriendly french person.

Don't know where this prejudice comes from.

Re: Turkish language has a gossip tense

#96

Post by 082349872349872 »

jcul wrote: post #28
readthenotes1 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"This is in terrible contrast to french " I guess I got lucky in France then because they felt so sorry for me after my attempts at french they would reply in english

That's kind of the problem though, if you are trying to learn and people just switch to English it's difficult to make progress. I've had situations in France where I ended up having one side of the conversation in French and one in English!

> one side of the conversation in French and one in English!

This is actually an effective way for two people to practise each others' language, and is adjustable according to aptitudes:

Easy mode: each person speaks their own L1

Hard mode: each person speaks the other's L1

Re: Turkish language has a gossip tense

#100

Post by tetris11 »

oguzcana wrote: post #73
jayd16 wrote: post #11

What tense do they use in news or something you're fairly certain is fact but you didn't witness it yourself?

You still use this tense if you are just reporting what you heard on news. What matters is that you have not witnessed it, just talking about what you heard on news. “There was an accident.” “Kaza ol muş ” (the alleged gossip tense). If you want to emphasize something matter of factly, you might use the normal past tense (kaza ol du ) but that might imply you seen it yourself, you you might get asked if you were actu…

Its also very important to slowly yell in this tense, when giving a public speech to more than 10 people. It doesn't matter if there is a mic or not, the words must carry with the wind and strike the hearts of all who hear it.
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