A Turkey Story

What’s the connection between our Thanksgiving bird and a Middle Eastern country?

What’s the connection between our Thanksgiving bird and a Middle Eastern country?

It all starts in the 1500’s with a smaller version of our turkey. This bird was brought by Portuguese traders from West Africa (called at that time the Guinean Coast) and then imported into Madagascar via Turkey. It was given the name guinea fowl after the area in West Africa where it had originally been found.

The larger North American bird was domesticated by the Aztecs, introduced to Spain by conquistadors about the same time and then to wider Europe. The word turkey was first applied to it in English because it was thought to be a species of guinea fowl. Remember that bird “from Turkey”? That’s one version.

The second possibility is that because it got to the rest of Europe from Spain by way of North Africa, then under Ottoman (Turkish) rule, it was simply called a turkey.

But quite clearly, the name of our Thanksgiving bird was taken, one way or the other, from the country of Turkey—even though it is native to North America. So, what do other countries call this quintessential American bird?

The Turkish name for it is hindi, literally “Indian,” probably influenced by Middle French dinde, a contraction of poulet d’inde, literally “chicken from India.” In modern French, turkey is called dindon, based on the 17th century misconception that the New World was eastern Asia and that’s where the bird came from.

So, what do they call this North American bird in India? Well, in the Hindi language, “turkey” is “tarki.”

But wait, there’s more. In Portuguese, the same bird is called “peru,” after the South American nation.  Sort of like our naming the bird a “turkey”, the Portuguese of the 16th century believed the bird came from South America. (At the time “Peru” referred to a much larger area of the continent).

The Vietnamese word for the bird is “gà tây” or western chicken. A Vietnamese friend explains that “local chicken is smaller than western chicken,” so they need to be distinguished.

In Myanmar, the Burmese word for “turkey” is “kyat sin.” The name translates to “elephant chicken” in English.  It was explained that “That animal looks like a big chicken.” In Afghanistan, the name for a turkey in the Dari language, “fel murgh” likewise translates to “elephant chicken.”  But in this case, the name represents the size of this delicious meal. No matter, the descriptive name “elephant chicken” is better than giving the turkey a country’s name.

Since 2021, the country of Turkey has been officially recognized by its native name and spelling: Türkiye.  Does that mean we’re going to sit down to türkiye dinner this Thanksgiving 😊?