[Lexicog] Turkey = French Chicken

[sch99 at MYUW.NET]

In Cambodia the French get the credit.  The Khmer word for Turkey is 'mon
barang' which translates directly as 'French Chicken'.  A reasonable guess is
that French colonialists introduced the turkey to Cambodia, although I do not
know for a fact that this is correct.  One could imagine that if turkeys did
not exist or if they had not been introduced to Cambodia that 'mon barang'
could refer to a variety of chicken introduced by the French.  Such a use,
although expected, seems blocked now and 'mon barang' must refer to turkeys. 

In Khmer, 'barang' combines with various words create new names for unrelated
items.  For example 'French bamboo shoot' is aspargus.  This is in addition to
its use to specify certain varieties of things, e.g. French onion, French
potato, etc.

Stephen



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> Message: 1         
>    Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 11:40:42 -0600
>    From: Dilworth Parkinson <dil at byu.edu>
> Subject: Re: Turkey
> 
> Would anyone want to venture a guess as to why Arabic in general and  
> Egyptian Arabic in particular use 'diik ruumi' for turkey.  This  
> would translate literally to 'Roman Rooster' or even more literally  
> to 'Byzantine Rooster', which almost seems to be a direct translation  
> of Turkey Cock.  The Wehr dictionary also gives 'diik AlHabash' lit.  
> rooster of Ethiopia, but i have never heard it used.  Egypt was part  
> of the Ottoman realm (part of 'Turkey' in a sense) when the bird  
> became prevalent.
> Dil Parkinson
> 




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