When did the word karı become pejorative, replaced by eş? When I took Turkish at UW-Madison back in the 90s we learned that was the word for wife, then I moved to Istanbul in 1998 and was corrected the first time I said it. My prof also taught us words like tayyare and talebe without bothering to tell us that we would only be able to communicate with our friends’ grandparents with that vocabulary.
"Karı" has really taken a back seat, but I don't think it's completely out yet. It's still used in particular contexts and sentence constructions, but when you step out of those it becomes tricky really fast. For example, at a wedding ceremony, you'll still be pronounced "karı-koca," but if you're introducing yourself to new neighbors you'll be referring to your wife as your "eş."
I don't know when that happened. The word "hatun" has also changed pretty fast in the last decades, and is either a folksy way to refer to one's wife or slang for an attractive woman.
Also - I went to UW Madison too! There was a Turkish teacher there whose husband owned a restaurant. I think she did much of her work on Anatolian folk songs. Wonderful professor. Did you take her classes?
Merhaba, Badgerdaş! ("fellow Badger"?) Yes, I took classes from Prof. Sarah Atış, who was married to Hüsnü, who ran Hüsnü's restaurant on State Street. She wrote a book about Tanpınar's short stories and I guess she wanted us to be able to read that era of fiction in Turkish and selected the textbooks accordingly. At any rate, I think I made more friends in Istanbul by entertaining people as the American in his 20s who spoke like their dedeler, so I shouldn't complain, and it helped later when I got into reading older texts in Turkish. I'm not sure that she also worked on Anatolian folk songs, but quite possible! I recall that she spoke to us a lot about the work of Henry Glassie, who worked on folk culture and arts in Turkey.
When did the word karı become pejorative, replaced by eş? When I took Turkish at UW-Madison back in the 90s we learned that was the word for wife, then I moved to Istanbul in 1998 and was corrected the first time I said it. My prof also taught us words like tayyare and talebe without bothering to tell us that we would only be able to communicate with our friends’ grandparents with that vocabulary.
"Karı" has really taken a back seat, but I don't think it's completely out yet. It's still used in particular contexts and sentence constructions, but when you step out of those it becomes tricky really fast. For example, at a wedding ceremony, you'll still be pronounced "karı-koca," but if you're introducing yourself to new neighbors you'll be referring to your wife as your "eş."
I don't know when that happened. The word "hatun" has also changed pretty fast in the last decades, and is either a folksy way to refer to one's wife or slang for an attractive woman.
Also - I went to UW Madison too! There was a Turkish teacher there whose husband owned a restaurant. I think she did much of her work on Anatolian folk songs. Wonderful professor. Did you take her classes?
Merhaba, Badgerdaş! ("fellow Badger"?) Yes, I took classes from Prof. Sarah Atış, who was married to Hüsnü, who ran Hüsnü's restaurant on State Street. She wrote a book about Tanpınar's short stories and I guess she wanted us to be able to read that era of fiction in Turkish and selected the textbooks accordingly. At any rate, I think I made more friends in Istanbul by entertaining people as the American in his 20s who spoke like their dedeler, so I shouldn't complain, and it helped later when I got into reading older texts in Turkish. I'm not sure that she also worked on Anatolian folk songs, but quite possible! I recall that she spoke to us a lot about the work of Henry Glassie, who worked on folk culture and arts in Turkey.
A very very nice article! I learned a lot!