We live our lives forever taking leave - Rilke

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Thursday, 19 December 2024

Thursday, December 19/2024


 Someone who offers both in person and online Turkish language classes - and possibly English language classes as well - posts occasional little samplers. Collections of objects or useful phrases. Nicely done and reasonably helpful. But if I am not seeming to memorise the few pages then suspect there would not be a lot of point to signing up for the classes.

My excuse has always been that Turkish is not an Indo-European language and this is true, despite the presence of obvious loan words. Note the pineapple in the chart. However even a very little of a language is better than none. The samplers include single words for “I am lost” and “I do not understand”which could prove extremely helpful in the right - or more probably wrong - circumstances. Know less than half a dozen words in Arabic but they include the words for “no”and “thank you”and did see regular use in Cairo.