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language in cyprus pre-1974

How can we solve it? (keep it civilized)

Postby Bananiot » Sun Dec 26, 2004 11:12 am

My father, a renoun tavli player in Mesaoria (I boast I inherited some of his expertise) everytime he through 5 and 2, he would say "phengi dou" or "shesh besh" for 6 and 5. So, I presume there is much truth in what you write Mehmet. I am also confronted with many turkish words which we use daily but hadn't a clue they were turkish. For example, last week I bought some cheese in Lamar (I shouldn't be saying this, the patriots will jump on me) and I read "taze" on the label. We use "tazetiko" to refer to something fresh.
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Postby mehmet » Sun Dec 26, 2004 11:25 am

One thing I forgot was that the Persian for two was duex (like in the Latin languages). Double two was 'dubara'. Taze has the same meaning in Turkish. Language and food are two of the factors that bind us together. For example in Turkey, except for the border with Syria you can't get hoummous although as Turks we eat it in Cyprus. Another thing is how hardly anyone drinks Turkish coffee in Turkey, preferring instead strong black tea with lumps of sugar in it.
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Postby Bananiot » Sun Dec 26, 2004 11:32 am

Yes, I found this out last night. We had visitors at home and a young girl (greek cypriot) married to a turkish man from Istanbul were among them. Everyone drunk english tea but Kemal insisted on black tea with 3 sugars! His wife whispered in the ear of my wife "only 2 sugars please".
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Postby MicAtCyp » Sun Dec 26, 2004 4:35 pm

Bananiot wrote: A question: Does anyone know what a simirlis is? Probably it has to do with Egypt.


You confused everyone with the above mispelling in you original post . I later saw that you are actually looking for the meaning of the word "Misirli".
Well, Egypt in Turkish is called "Misir".
"Misirli =The one who originates from Egypt" the same way that Lefkosali=the one who originates from Nicosia and Bafli =the one who originates from Paphos.
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Postby Bananiot » Sun Dec 26, 2004 7:30 pm

I swear it wasn't intentional.
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Postby brother » Sun Dec 26, 2004 8:33 pm

Thanks michael for the correct spelling.

We believe you bananiot :D
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Postby MicAtCyp » Mon Dec 27, 2004 8:04 pm

By the way if anyone has recorded the closing ceremony of the Athens Olymbics, the song "Misirlou" was sang there by Anna Vissi, a GC singer.
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