Ep.5: Turkish Borrowings in Serbian

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and today we are having a vocabulary episode for you

but it is a different one because this time we are talking about Turkish

too how Turkish words

still are used in Serbia some some of them are used in a different

way some of them are having a different accent some of them uh

you know are the same so we are going to look at them compare

them and we will maybe use them in

in contacts as well so hopefully you will like it yes and i'm pretty

sure i'm gonna find out

that a lot of our words are turkish i'll be like this word is

turkish what um yeah many people tell

me oh you're gonna learn serbian so easily because we have so many turkish

words i'm like yeah words yes i can learn but it's not the whole

thing about the language but still they are like

oh we have so many turkish words that's true the vocabulary like especially in

nouns now that i

realize are quite um and it's kind of like everyday things right and i

wanted to say this is your episode after four seasons yes finally we

got we should do actually I felt a little bit it's my

episode when we talked about the southern part of Serbia because I'm more familiar

with it now

and in the south they use Turkish words more as far as I realize

especially when I talk to people

from Nobisad they're not that familiar with some of the words that they use

that they still use here i think yeah i mean i think so too

because it makes sense like uh history wise because that

part was really uh more under the ottoman empire than the north um but

also there's a really big

difference in bosnia of course right where they even use even more so i

probably yeah so i remember when I do talk I had one class where

it was like a class on Serbian slash Bosnian slash

slash Croatian authors and would go through texts and I would learn new words

and then I would

realize that there are synonyms and then there is a Turkish kind of synonym

for a Serbian maybe

version so or just the completely new concepts or something like that so yeah

that was interesting and Ivo Andri's book that you have still not I guess

right I haven't read it I haven't yeah I But that one is also

like showing all the Turkish words in brackets.

Like it is actually a Turkish word meaning that it says.

So it has a lot of because it's just in the border.

Right. So, so many words that probably you don't use now.

So I wanted to talk about these words in categories.

So the most, like most of the words are about household things.

Right. Yeah.

Because.

Everyday things. yeah everyday things are shared more when turks and serbs live together

so that's why

lots of options there yeah a lot let's go actually yeah i'm gonna let

you i'm not gonna look because

i really want to be surprised now because i i skimmed a bit but

i didn't see all of them let's

start i'm gonna try to say them in serbian way because obviously the way

we say them is a bit different but sat yeah it's sat a clock

right also watch you use in both ways right yeah we use it

like hour and uh and the watch yeah a clock clock yeah like watch

right and um of course to make

coffee we make the same coffee that the tool is the same as well

which is jesva which you say right yes

yes jesva which is basically like the equivalent in

serbian like in serbian english is it's like a it's literally like a coffee

pot right it's like

it's just like a pod like a tiny pot that's it and this is

the handle yeah with the handle that's it

anyway and you use kashika kashika the same way we just don't add i

at the end

yeah we say kashika oh wait this is interesting sat is how do you

say it in turkish though

so two a's we have sat yeah which is kind of long here as

well we don't say sat but like sat

yeah it's just the the accent is slightly we have four accents and this

one is like kind of like ah two different yeah the same the same

we have side yeah okay so this one is

masculine and then uh kashika is feminine so if it ends in ah so

okay what you do have you don't

have gender do you grammatical gender we don't we don't even have he she

we don't even have them

in pronouns so let alone the word so that's why it's different okay the

other most common the first thing that i heard was kesa so that's why

i was like i don't know what they're saying but they're

saying kese so kese in turkish kesa which is bag um we

forgot to say kashica is spoon a spoon right

we have to translate it in english uh kesa or kese for us would

be the plastic bag usually the but the one you're carrying.

So it will be, yeah, that's like,

that's what I think of like, you know,

when you go to a supermarket and you have like this,

this is the see-through,

plastic bag but yeah yeah that's that's the same for us because we also

have torba which is the

other one hey so i now i just realized torba torba right yeah yeah

there you go there's there's the

pattern there so torba is again back but the paper one or not paper

one you don't say paper one torba i would be it can also be

like a torba you that you bring for work or like torba torba

can even be yeah anything that you that you carry it can even be

like something for

the trip yeah you know yeah definitely it's mostly cloth yeah cloth

bag right something

more substantial than like you know go to the store and buy like apples

or something and again from the kitchen i don't think you use

chasma in that way like as a faucet you use it as

i guess uh for like this authentic historic um water

source right chasma oh no we so if it's if it's outside i have

one tesma in my my backyard right so it's a yeah it's like a

it's a faucet

yeah yeah it's faucet so the kitchen also has chestma for you well inside

it's not called

chestma yeah that's what i'm saying for us it's still the same outside inside

ah okay okay okay

so it's usually when it's outside so you have uh like big uh you

can find like at on the square like public chess but then you have

the it's always outside yeah yeah this is what i heard okay these were

about the kitchen and the other rooms now yastuk yorgan

yeah these three combinations is sad which is pillow killed

and sheet yeah exactly yeah

isn't it that if you think about it like there's a lot of like

words with uh also as soon as you see i i know it's turkish

i'm like this is turkish yeah yeah j as well is a very good

indication that it's turkish as well i mean obviously it can be very you know

it doesn't have to be because we

have which is german but uh but yeah i i i when i hear

of uh what was it which one yorgan or tarsav yeah i just hear

my turkish friend saying it i'm like that sounds turkish yeah so your gun

uh is the kilt right you blanket is also your gun for you

blanket is um no we would say chebe chebe chebe

which would be in other areas like in

i think croatia they say deka cool and from that to peskir which

is towel exactly but is it the big towel pesky any kind of towel

any kind of towel pesky uh you can say mali pesky velik pesky

anything that's fluffy and you know you know like it's not it's not a

cloth like um uh for

the dishes right it's it's always like this fluffy with like little you know

that that soaks in the

water i don't know how to explain it so that's used in the bathroom

right you don't use it in the kitchen or for cleaning.

It's just for the bathroom.

And pamuk, we say the same thing for pamuk.

Cotton, yeah.

Pamuk, which is important to know if you want to buy something in Serbia.

You want to make sure to have cotton, yeah.

And in the bathroom, one more thing, tush.

yeah and tush it's interesting because in german it's dusha yeah i think it's

it's coming from

german because in turkish is tush as well yeah i'm pretty sure we're

gonna have some uh someone

who's who's experienced how is it how do you say etymologist who's gonna be

like who's gonna be

like no this is not a turkish this is from this language sorry guys

we just found some similarities So maybe it's not 100% true.

Definitely. We should say that they are common words, not always borrowed, but we are

just assuming

that somehow Turks brought these words.

We don't know the origin for some of them.

Some of them are meaningful in Turkish.

That's why I can say, oh, this is completely Turkish.

But for Dursh, definitely, I can't say that.

We don't know who took it from whom, right?

Yeah, that's true.

and from that to neighborhood let's go oh or the buildings what i saw

uh

on the buildings was cut like kati par kati doa

a cut cut is like floor right oh but that's in

croatia but here as well i see in the buildings like cut cut cut

that's interesting because we say Sprat.

Yeah, Sprat is also another one I see.

That's true. But Kat is also common here.

That's weird. Yeah, I would not.

I think. Yeah, yeah.

That would always connect it to creation.

Okay, Kat. Yeah.

Kat is floor.

So in the buildings, you can see those signs like Kat

one, Kat two.

That means floor one, floor two.

Sorry, it sounds like Kat one, Kat two.

But yeah,

yeah yeah okay uh now next

one is i'm not sure who took it from whom as well but it

comes from conmark so i think it's kind of turkish but maybe it also

means something in

serbian so komsia is neighbor i think it's turkish uh yeah komsia komsiluk

which is neighborhood um uh you can also say we would be doing um

my area instead of saying komcia you could say

um komcia like we kind of shorten it komcia um yeah all

of my neighbors uh like guy friends

would be like komcia it's a komcia it was like a thing so i

think little neighbor right

no no komcia is is a female version female version okay yeah komcia komcia

and from that

in the neighborhood we can see Chupria.

Oh, Chupria. Yeah, that's true.

Although we don't really use it

that much in my area.

Chupria. I think Chupria is a bridge.

You don't use it,

for example, in Belgrade,

the bridges are not called Chupria as well,

Most.

I guess.

Most, yeah. Yeah, so that's, I think,

more in the South or maybe...

I'm not questioning the South,

but definitely in Bosnia,

they use it.

But yeah.

And in the neighborhood,

again uh duchan duchan i had we do use it other people in in

my area but we do use it idemo duchan idemo duchan duchan is a

store especially small stores right yeah but you

basically we just use it as a synonym i'm going shopping like uh but

like grocery shopping not

like you know buying clothes can i add i actually can actually connected to

the neighborhood and so on we also have a sockak which is uh street

yes the street and uh avalia yep which

is i think you

use it a bit different avalia is like the patio the entrance of your

garden like from your garden

to to your i forgot now what avalia meant because i personally don't use

it but i think that's the place uh like in your garden or in

front of your house where you chill out like maybe it's like a

sofa outdoors and you sit there this is how they use it guys sorry

i'm gonna have to check it but avalia i think is it's a dvorish

it's it's backyard or something like that i think so yeah

if i'm not mistaken and um do you use zanat as a craft

yes uh-huh

how do you say zanat or zanat zanat for us zanat so

the second part is longer

zanat we usually yeah it's usually like most of our stress is on the

first syllable

um yeah i mean not not all the time obviously but i just noticed

even my name is ivana is on the

first syllable so we have that tendency to have uh yeah stress in the

first syllable okay yeah yeah

these are about the house and neighborhood and we can go to food now

as we share so much food names and we share our food right like

we we have we make some of your food

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quite a lot yeah in in the Balkans yeah but I'm so glad because

you created your own version of it

it's not the same cherbabi here and kebab in Turkish are presented differently it's

yeah I

mean the taste is similar maybe but many things are a little bit different

yeah well it's also

like a slightly different meat right we use you can use slightly different meat

but I think for you kebab is like like a um it's like a

bit of like a luxury thing you make it you assemble it really nicely

for us it's kind of like oh just just grab it you know to

go yeah and for you it's like actually you know something yeah it takes

lot of time to prepare it so not everyone can prepare it at home

a

for sure exactly which this is like ah just flip it and that's it

yeah and i realized looking at those words like our k

is too in in your case like kebab chevap uh you say dukan you

say duchan

that's a good observation yeah there was something else

but we will come to that is another one you say shechere which is

sugar you say shekash ah shekash okay i see shekash and

you say shekash right it's in the second syllable yeah yeah torba is

the same yeah torba is the same

which is soup which is also creamy yes yeah creamy for you

torba is specific for us always it's creamy it's dense we don't have that

your uh like liquid soup bistra soup we don't yeah

this bistra soup is super right with noodles but everything else like with milk

or like

cream or even flour yeah or maybe uh yeah

even tomatoes paradise right oh that's paradise tomato soup yep and

another take a difference truth that you say yeah i realized that yeah a

köfte right

köfte

i think the same like the same kind

of pronunciation for two foot names biber

again pepper

yeah for you biber biber

it's a bit shorter yeah and

caranfil yeah what is it cauliflower what is no

what is caranfil oh my god caranfil

it's actually a flower oh my god i said people are gonna kill me

it's not cauliflower it's not it's not but the

seed is used as well in the restaurants to refresh like a mint

thing like you put it in your mouth and it kind of cleans and

gives you a nice taste in the mouth

the seed of that flower I just can't remember how you see it in

English though

we will check it out but I don't use it in English at all

yeah maybe it's just not omnipresent

so

next one is uh castan oh castan chestnut

chestnut is that how it is yes not in english oh my god

it's so weird because i don't use it in chestnut yeah yeah and one

of the main things in turkish cuisine and serbian cuisine used a lot in

the kitchen sirce oh sirce what wait you say sirke definitely yeah

you got it sir sirke or sirke sirke sirke

okay there you go so that's um vinegar vinegar yeah which i find this

yeah i find this one funny because i we don't have the color for

that and you added a color

to this vegetable which is uh patlican you say plavi patlican

oh yeah i've never used it but yeah I think it's plavi probably there

are many there are some more because actually no uh okay it's

purple yeah actually but you know the thing is that also I think uh

cabbage we don't say

purple cabbage I think I'm trying to think of like if that is in