Turkish For Beginners

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Grace Seeker said:
I know that I one time in my life I thought that Muslims never referred to God as God, but only Allah. Now, on this forum at least, I see that I was wrong about that. Many Muslims here seem to use God and Allah interchangeably. I assume, understanding that Allah is just the Arabic word for God and thus in English there is comfort with both the Arabic word that would be used in the mosque and the English word that communicates to non-Arabic speakers.

1.How is it in Turkey? Do people use Allah and Tanri interchangeably?

2.Are there other words such as RAB for Lord, or what does RAB mean?

3.Are there any other ways that Allah might be commonly addressed in Turkish?

4.Any other words that a Jewish Turk or a Christian Turk might use to speak of God (and in this case I'm not getting theological, so I don't mean Isa), that would be distinct from how a MUslim Turk would refer to God?
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hey grace seeker,

i have taken the liberty of numbering ur questions and answering them respectively.

1. do turks use Allah and Tanri interchangebly? no. regardless of the fact that i do not live in turkey and have only been there twice in my life, i live amongst turks and most of my house mates are from turkey. i knwo for a fcat that there is a great distinction between the two terms. Allah is what one would call God.that is, the montheistic God known to all Abrahamic and rightful faiths. tanri on the other hand, is a less binding term pertaining to the age old history of religious diversity..it doesnt relate to the 'islamic' or monothesitic God.i think one could derive its meaning as being 'deity'. i undertsand that tanri doesnt imply paganism...no...but for turks, it is merely a term for 'something greater' or like 'a' god...

2.Rab is a characteristic or attribute of God. it is not uncommon for turks to call God rab. rab means owner, creator. to begin a prayer saying something like "ya rab" is like saying "oh my creator"...it furthers the connection between the person and God...by using the term rab, they are able to establish the binding connection between themselves and God respectively.sort of like...you created me, you own me and now i pray to u...

3.as you probably have picked up, Allah is known to have 99 attributes or names which muslims in common believe. one may choose to call upon God in any of these ways. so far as general expressions go, Allah is the most common....rab, ilah, allah...these are all terms used for the one almighty God.

4.they would simply adopt the Christian or jewish terminology…which is pretty much the same…as it can be seen, ‘Allah’ and how he is referred to is interlinked with the attributes the religion believes that he possesses. Rab, Allah, ilah, etc are all common factors of the monotheistic God which I have already stated above….many attributes may also be used interchangeably…the only difference is that the attributes muslims believe God has are formally expressed through the Quran etc…the Christian and Jewish Turks would call him by those attributes if they wished, but it wouldn’t be a formal expression…if that makes sense…they would be calling apon him according to the factors which they believe he is high and mighty in. eg, they could say “oh all merciful.” And yes he is merciful…but when muslims say it, it is actually his name…

hope that helps a bit…if I have confused u further, please feel free to ask.:)

peace.
 
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sumeyye said:
hope that helps a bit…if I have confused u further, please feel free to ask.:)

peace.
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Yes, your post and Mustkic's second post were both quite helpful. They affirm what I had picked up on before, but I did feel a need to ask. Sometimes one makes an assumption, and only later finds that one was operating under a false assumption. Also, one can read all sorts of things in dictionaries and encyclopedias, and the reality of life as people live it can be yet a completely different thing. So, I am glad for the personal responses that you have both given.
 
Salaam everybody!
Eid mubarak to you all...
I haven't been online for a long time because of my school. I am here again If you need my help I will try my best. At the same time I need your helps too. My problem is about my english. I can understand what you write wholly but when it comes to write myself it is a disaster. I cant express my ideas/feelings well neither orally nor wriiten. I usually afraid of making mistakes so I prefer not to write/speak in order not to make mistake. Please help me! what can I do to get rid of this situation
 
*babk* said:
Salaam everybody!
Eid mubarak to you all...
I haven't been online for a long time because of my school. I am here again If you need my help I will try my best. At the same time I need your helps too. My problem is about my english. I can understand what you write wholly but when it comes to write myself it is a disaster. I cant express my ideas/feelings well neither orally nor wriiten. I usually afraid of making mistakes so I prefer not to write/speak in order not to make mistake. Please help me! what can I do to get rid of this situation
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:sl:
hosgeldin kardesim...

you touch on something which is totally natural....i believe that everyone struggles with their second language. u are not alone.:)

i personally struggle with my turkish...writing and reading are fine..i struggle with compiling sentences and speaking...i realised that this is because i read, write, see, think and even dream everything in english...when i need to speak turkish, the original thought in my mind is english..my brain functions with english...so i need to find ways to speed up and make my sentence compliation for speaking more 'practical'...because with turkish, my mind is out of its comfort zone...

you have probably realised that even though u are able to type on ur keyboard super fast in turkish..it takes u longer to do it in english..right?

i have been living for the past few years with people from turkey...i teach them english, help them and give them advice...and the main advice is simple and u know u must do it...reading and listening...

u must read and listen to english things...
i believe u can probably find books which are read on cassette and follow while reading...this will help a lot.
if not, u must read on a regular basis...choose a book and read a few pages every night...this takes dicsipline because i know u would much rather like to read or watch other things...
make sure u listen to english 'everyday' speaking...the way it sounds ccoming out of ur teachers mouth, or on the news is very diffrent to usual speaking...i would advise, if u have the financial means, to go to a country where english is common...and work...u dnt even have to study...while working u are FORCED to speak english...

u said that u were affraid of making mistakes so u choose not to speak english or write english...all my frends have the same problem...and i cant force them and they cannot force themselves...it depends on how much u want to learn english...some of them say "derdimi anlatacak kadar ogrendim ya..yeter bana"...but that is silly...derdini anlatana kadar adam akilli biseyler anlatsana...you have the opportunity to learn english and be very good at it...but u let ur emotions get in the way..dont do that! if u dnt make mistakes, how will u fix them??? u must make mistakes, realise that they are wrong and then work towards fixing it.i know many turks who have picked up english and can speak it with almost NO ACCENT!..but they worked hard...

u are capable...u just have to try hard...

gecmis bayraminiz mubarek olsun...

:w:
 
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*babk*, the other thing you might do besides just the immersion that Sumeyye speaks of, is share with those of us who are native English speakers anything that you have written that you are unsure of, and get some feedback. I know that when my Spanish speaking friends went from telling me how wonderful my Spanish was (simply because I was trying) to actually correcting my mistakes that it was then that I started to really make some improvement.
 
Grace Seeker said:
*babk*, the other thing you might do besides just the immersion that Sumeyye speaks of, is share with those of us who are native English speakers anything that you have written that you are unsure of, and get some feedback. I know that when my Spanish speaking friends went from telling me how wonderful my Spanish was (simply because I was trying) to actually correcting my mistakes that it was then that I started to really make some improvement.
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precisely...i agree...

it is quite alright for u to ask us any queries or practice writing and we can fix up ur writing for u...

if u are not happy with publicly posting here, u mite like to pm some of us...i am more than happy to..:)
 
sumeyye said:
perhaps we could perfect ur turkish grace seeker? what do u say???

i dnt know how bt maybe u ask us more and more and we can answer more and more....:)
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Sure. Since Monday is National Republic Day, I might want to send greetings to my family and friends on it. Would that be customary? What type of greeing would one send?

I was thinking something like: Türkciye gunu kutlu olsun!!

Am I close?
 
Grace Seeker said:
Sure. Since Monday is National Republic Day, I might want to send greetings to my family and friends on it. Would that be customary? What type of greeing would one send?

I was thinking something like: Türkciye gunu kutlu olsun!!

Am I close?
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Hi Grace seeker,
hope u r doing well:)

u r close but we dont use those kidna greetings for this day,,,

u can say;

cumhuriyet bayramın(ız) kutlu olsun,

take care well
peace
 
Kurban bayrami mutlu olson!!!


I hope I said that right?? I was trying to say, "Happy, Kurban Bayram!" Isn't that today?
 

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