Learn Turkish Language Online -- Turkish Learning Logo
[Learn Turkish: Home] [Turkish: Beginners]
[Table of Contents] [Questions/Comments]
[Blog: Our Turkey Life!]
[Learn Turkish: Website Updates]
[Turkish: Website Search Engine]
[Online Turkish Word Dictionary]
Learn Turkish language, 
Online color bar

Identify this
Famous Turks Series -- Tuğba Özay, Celebrity Model
Famous Turk...
Free updates for life!
Jim and Peri's
Commercial-free
CD/Broadband Editions
for Turkish Learning --
with triple ebook bonus!
Learn Turkish Language CD/Broadband Offer

Translation Services

The Allah Exclamations --
An Illustrated Update

Some Allah Exclamations!
Translation Services for Turkish exclamations
Related Pages:
  • Allah Exclamations on the 'Idioms Letter-A' page
  • All about 'Bismillah...'
  • Collected 'Allah Exclamations' List
  • How To Learn Basic Turkish --
    A Practical Philosophy for beginners

    (Found in the 'Introduction to The Whole Earth Catalog of Turkish Movies'.)
  • Everyday Turkish Exclamations
    with illustrative cartoons that help you understand their meaning

    Last February our friend John Guise (now emigrated to New Zealand and newly-wed to his childhood sweetheart, Dorothy, who tracked him down via the Internet) provided us with a composite list of everyday Turkish exclamations -- which had been supplied to him by Ms. Burcu Dicle Yıldız.

    As noted at the time, we'd already addressed several of those exclamations (e.g. The Allah Idioms, Bismillah. etc. -- please see our pages at: Idiomatic Exclamations A and Idiomatic Exclamations B). But, because language-learning-strugglers can always benefit from multiple explications of the Turkish exclamations (since they can have different meanings in different unrelated situations), we also included Burcu Hanım's "Everyday Exclamation List" as a supplement to another of our our pages.

    And then, just recently, we came across a couple of newspaper cartoons (both by Ergin Asyalı) that provide even further insight into several of the everyday exclamations in question. Let's have a look at these latest illustrative cartoons (which both appeared in Gözcü Gazetesi -- in different contexts, on separate dates)...

    Kaygısız
    Maganda (The Lout) explains the everyday
    'Allah Exclamations'

    Translation Services for Turkish Exclamations
    Click for enlargement!

    Thanks to Gözcü Gazetesi,
    Ergin Asyalı
    29 September 2006

    In the first panel of the cartoon...
    The Lout sez: Here in Turkey, we've left all our work (jobs, activities, tasks) to God. For example, before taking on a job we say 'İnşallah'. If we trust in ourselves to do the job, we say 'Evvelallah'.

    In the second panel, The Lout continues: As we begin any new activity, we say 'Bismallah'. If we give up on an activity, it's 'Eyvallah'. If we are ready to do our utmost to complete a job, we say 'Ya Allah'.

    In the third panel, The Lout concludes: If we are frustrated, bored, or fed up with a task we say 'Fesupanallah'. When we embrace a task enthusiastically with spirit, we say 'Allah, Allah, Allah'. If we finish a job successfully, we say 'Maşallah'. And if we fail at a job, we say 'Hay Allah'.

    And, to illustrate further --

    The political cartoon below (also by Ergin Asyalı) depicts a frustrated fundamentalist Muslim mullah (and his perplexed young pupil)...

    At the cartoon's upper left, the symbolic voice of 'Modern Turkey' roars out, "Turkey is secular, and it will remain secular." Upon hearing the thunderous declaration, the mullah (at center) decries, "Won't this contest ever end? I'm fed up to the teeth with it (Fesupanallah)."

    The Contest between Secularists and Fundamentalists --
    Is this Turkey's 'NeverEnding Story'...?

    Translation Services for Turkish Exclamations
    Click for enlargement!

    Thanks to Gözcü Gazetesi,
    Ergin Asyalı
    15 November 2006

    Editor's Note: Can either side win outright the 'contest' between Turkish secularists and the religious-right in Turkey? Those in favor of a secular Turkish state remember that, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."

    But, that editorial note aside...language-learning-strugglers wishing to more fully understand the everyday 'Allah Exclamations' may want to save (or print) a copy of this and the other, above-mentioned pages.

    Related Pages:
  • Allah Exclamations on the 'Idioms Letter-A' page
  • All about 'Bismillah...'
  • Collected 'Allah Exclamations' List
  • Other Related Pages:

  • Sharpen Your Translation Skills with Politicially Incorrect Maganda Cartoons
  • Sharpen Your Translation Skills with Racy Maganda Cartoons
  • When Politics and Language Collide
  • Better, Kinder Turkish Language Usage
  • A Fable for Language Learning
  • Not An Exception To A Turkish Grammar Rule
    Language related pages:
  • How To Learn Basic Turkish --
    A Practical Philosophy for beginners

    (Found in the 'Introduction to The Whole Earth Catalog of Turkish Movies'.)
  • Translating Turkish, the basics
  • Translating Turkish, advanced
  • Essential Turkish Vocabulary
  • Turkish Verbs
  • Essential Idioms, Index
  • Essential Suffixes, Index
  • Sentence Structure, Standard
  • Sentence Structure Variations
  • Turkish Pronunciation
  • Turkish Accenting
  • Turkish Numbers Revealed
  • Other Turkish Language Difficulties
  • Learn Turkish language

  • [Learn Turkish: Home] [Learning Practical Turkish Table of Contents] [Turkish Learning Message Center]Please email us and tell us how we can improve the Learning Practical Turkish Web site.

    © Learn Turkish of the People! - Translation Services for Turkish Exclamations