Istanbul Goes to the Cats; Çok, Yok, and somewhere in between.
Today we were greeted by the warm winds of the Mediterranean, the jackets have come off and windows are opened wide.
There are two words in Turkish that are especially useful but do not translate well into English, however the terms exist in slang. Çok and Yok, pronounced like strangling someone and a harness for an ox, deal with quantity in all it's forms. The closest English comes to çok is the expression 'Hella,' widely used in Northern California. But chok is used even more liberally than this! While it's possible to be hella sorry, you can not say "hella thank you" and make sence to anyone but the most faded stoners. But you can in Turkish! And on top of it, it's grammatically correct.
What does this mean? It means maybe one day the MLA will include "hella" as a combination adverb, adjective, and noun along with dropping either I or me as the confusion will have grown too great. Would you like to go to the store with Bob and I? Why not?
Yok expresses the opposite of çok, instead of quantity it means lack of quantity, but it's use is more limited to physical existence rather than extent and duration. However if someone asks you if you've seen someone, you can reply with his or her name and yok. If someone asks if you have a light, you can say yok.
And now, cats.
Have a good day!
There are two words in Turkish that are especially useful but do not translate well into English, however the terms exist in slang. Çok and Yok, pronounced like strangling someone and a harness for an ox, deal with quantity in all it's forms. The closest English comes to çok is the expression 'Hella,' widely used in Northern California. But chok is used even more liberally than this! While it's possible to be hella sorry, you can not say "hella thank you" and make sence to anyone but the most faded stoners. But you can in Turkish! And on top of it, it's grammatically correct.
What does this mean? It means maybe one day the MLA will include "hella" as a combination adverb, adjective, and noun along with dropping either I or me as the confusion will have grown too great. Would you like to go to the store with Bob and I? Why not?
Yok expresses the opposite of çok, instead of quantity it means lack of quantity, but it's use is more limited to physical existence rather than extent and duration. However if someone asks you if you've seen someone, you can reply with his or her name and yok. If someone asks if you have a light, you can say yok.
And now, cats.
Have a good day!
posted by Alex Gray at 18:17
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