For those not well versed in Balkan history, some basics: most people know about the collapse of Constantinople in 1453, and how the Ottoman Turks kept on going, eventually reaching the gates of Vienna, and laying siege to it twice if memory serves. However, between Constantinople and Vienna lies virtually all of the Balkans, from Greece to Croatia, and the Turks stayed there, at least in Serbia, Bosnia & Macedonia - for half a millennium, and they left there mark on everything. Drive south of Belgrade and you immediately see a difference from (say) Vojvodina or Croatia, which the Turks only occupied briefly, or not at all. In South Serbia one finds Persian carpets & low-tables in the cafes, darker complexions, and frankly a more oriental feel.
One of the quaintest surviving marks is the fact that many of the words for things related to civilised comforts - pillows, carpets, good food, etc. - are still Turkish. Jastuk (pillow), Krompir (potato), Burek (pastry), and many more that I ought to compile. Makes you think that the Serbs didn't really have many creature comforts before the invasion. Which, of course, is probably at least partly true. The Turks were the great civilisers of their time, bringing exotic foods from the orient, the virtues of cleanliness, and education. Ok, ok, I know they were not always the kindest of overlords, but then times were rough back then. Anyway, given the relative quality of the Turkish lifestyle relative to some of the neighbors - imagine if the Serbs had instead picked up cuisine from the Germans - I think the remaining marks are fundamentally a good thing.
3 comments:
Hello Rob! You are right about the Turkish influence. Here in Serbia we say that we can not be hungry in Istanbul because so many words for food (even for kitchen utensils) come from Turkish. But there is so much to discover when one digs into linguistic influences. This summer I learned from a Belgian friend that in Wallonian spoken in Liege, potato is named... krompîr! It turns out that it the root is an old German word "Grundbirne", meaning "ground pear".
Wow. Who would have thought? I guess I stand corrected, though I guess words for things like potatoes, being new world, probably generally came from the west.
Oh, oh, and on a similar note, and just new from my brother-in-law, he was pointing out that the various words with švaba in them (e.g. bubašvaba = cockroach) re actually derived from the German Schwabe, meaning from Schwabenland - the part of Germany not far from here (i.e. Stuttgart). The tale he told, which I sense is probably more folklore than truth, was that cockroaches somehow came with various German immigrants, who mostly hailed from this part of Germany.
And I guess one generally shouldn't forget the other influences from the German language, since you mentioned utensils, both Serbian escajg and Croatian bištek are clearly derived from old German esszeug or modern German bisteck.
I guess the main tragedy in regard to the Turks is that the Ottoman Empire's reforms (started in the 18thC) didn't succeed, generally speaking. So, what was essentially a multiethnic country (not really dominated by one nationality) fell apart. A year or two ago, in an article for NIN, the Serbian Princess Jelisaveta pointed out ways in which people in Istanbul are more cultivated than we are.
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