Tired of being confused with a bird that people eat at times times of celebration, the nation of Turkey has changed its official name to Turkiye.
Seriously.
Political leaders says the new spelling "represents and expresses the culture, civilization and values of the Turkish nation in the best way".
"Made in Turkiye" will now appear on all of the country's exports and the country's tourism website, GoTurkiye.com, has undergone the rebranding.
“Type ‘turkey’ into Google, and you will get a muddled collection of images, articles, and dictionary definitions that muddle the nation of Turkey with the large bird famous for being served on Christmas menus or Thanksgiving dinners.
And dictionary definitions of turkey include "something that fails badly" or "a stupid or silly person"
What difference will the change make? In all practical terms, zero.
Remember Germany is officially called Deutschland, but no one outside German-speaking countries uses that name. Sweden is officially Sverige, but is seldom called that.
Switzerland is called Suisse, Schweiz, Svizzera or Svizra, depening on which of the national languages you are speaking and Swaziland is now called Eswatini, which makes is even more obscure than before.
As you were.
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ReplyDeleteSuomi - Finland, Ceylon - Sri Lanka, Siam - Thailand, Cambodia - Kampuchea (although I know of no-one ever using the new name), Formosa - Taiwan, Malaya - Malaysia. All the Indian capitals changed name too. So largely an Asian thing, sometimes but not always to shed a colonial past. Rhodesia - Zimbabwe is another. Surprisingly common.
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