[ti:Turkey A Case of Mistaken Identity]
[ar:Anna Matteo]
[al:Words and Their Stories]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]And now another edition of Words and Their Stories,
[00:08.59]a VOA Learning English program about American expressions.
[00:13.42]Thanksgiving is one of the biggest American holidays.
[00:19.00]And Thanksgiving dinner is the center of the holiday.
[00:23.34]And at the center of Thanksgiving dinner is the turkey.
[00:28.87]Our listeners may be wondering
[00:31.86]why the word "turkey" describes both a country
[00:35.99]and a bird that Americans eat for Thanksgiving dinner.
[00:40.37]Many think the bird comes from the nation of Turkey.
[00:45.05]But turkey is not from Turkey.
[00:49.19]In fact, the fact that the turkey bird
[00:53.22]is called by that name is one big mistake.
[00:57.45]We could say it is a case of mistaken identity.
[01:02.12]Since Americans are celebrating Thanksgiving,
[01:06.01]it is time to set the record straight.
[01:09.14]First of all, "Turkey" has meant
[01:12.72]the "land of the Turks" since ancient times.
[01:16.47]The word turkey, referring to the bird,
[01:20.40]first appears in the English language around 1540.
[01:26.02]And the misunderstanding over the word turkey happened
[01:31.05]because of birds that look similar.
[01:34.08]This is the case of mistaken identity
[01:37.82]that we spoke of before.
[01:39.58]First, there is an African bird called the guinea fowl.
[01:44.76]It has dark feathers with white spots
[01:49.10]and a patch of brown on the back of its neck.
[01:52.85]Portuguese traders brought the guinea fowl
[01:57.37]to Europe through North Africa.
[01:59.66]This foreign bird came to Europe through Turkish lands.
[02:05.24]So, the English thought of the bird as a "Turkish chicken."
[02:11.07]They mistakenly called the male bird the "turkey cock."
[02:16.20]They called the female bird the "turkey hen."
[02:20.57]It became popular to eat the bird for Christmas dinner.
[02:25.81]When the Europeans moved to North America,
[02:29.89]they saw a bird that looked like the guinea fowl.
[02:34.07]Orin Hargraves is a lexicographer,
[02:38.25]someone who writes dictionaries.
[02:41.50]Mr. Hargraves explains what happened:
[02:45.18]"Some Europeans saw an American turkey,
[02:48.86]thought that it was the guinea fowl,
[02:52.05]which at that time was called the "turkey cock"
[02:54.29]and so gave it the same name."
[02:56.13]And so now we call this North American bird turkey
[03:01.46]even though it has no connection at all with the country Turkey ...
[03:07.43]or even with Europe, for that matter.
[03:10.17]Now we call that bird turkey because somebody misnamed it.
[03:15.75]They thought it looked like this bird of African origin --
[03:19.54]a bird that came at first from Africa.
[03:23.37]And there is another piece to the puzzle.
[03:26.95]The case of mistaken identity crosses land and language borders.
[03:32.63]The Turkish, for their part,
[03:35.76]call the North American bird "hindi,"
[03:38.90]the Turkish name for India.
[03:40.91]The reference to India probably comes from the old,
[03:46.08]wrong idea that the New World was in Eastern Asia.
[03:51.11]Sometimes, that is how language changes over time ¨C by mistakes.
[03:57.33]Another interesting fact about the turkey
[04:01.33]is that it almost became the national bird of the United States.
[04:06.46]Some people thought it should be the symbol of the U.S.
[04:10.98]But today, of course, you will see the bald eagle
[04:16.86]on the Presidential Seal of the United States.
[04:19.75]Founding father Benjamin Franklin did not think
[04:24.58]the eagle was a good symbol for the new country.
[04:28.16]He thought the eagle was "lazy"
[04:31.40]and "of bad moral character"
[04:34.14]because it stole food from other birds.
[04:37.42]He thought that the turkey was a "more respectable bird"
[04:42.46]and a "true original native of America."
[04:46.44]And that's it for this episode of Words and Their Stories.
[04:51.63]Join us again next week,
[04:53.92]when we explore the story behind American English.
END OF TRACK. "END OF TRACK." The two men bowed. "Whoever was that person you were talking to?" she enquired, as soon as they stood together. The took of triumph faded from her eyes, she had grown worn and weary. The roses were wilting on the walls, the lights were mostly down now. Hetty, looking in to see if anything was wanted, found herself driven away almost fiercely. I only saw Master Jervie once when he called at tea time, The year 1747 was opened by measures of restriction. The House of Lords, offended at the publication of the proceedings of the trial of Lord Lovat, summoned the parties to their bar, committed them to prison, and refused to liberate them till they had pledged themselves not to repeat the offence, and had paid very heavy fees. The consequence of this was that the transactions of the Peers were almost entirely suppressed for nearly thirty years from this time, and we draw our knowledge of them chiefly from notes taken by Horace Walpole and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke. What is still more remarkable, the reports of the House of Commons, being taken by stealth, and on the merest sufferance, are of the most meagre kind, sometimes altogether wanting, and the speeches are given uniformly under fictitious names; for to have attributed to Pitt or Pelham their[112] speeches by name would have brought down on the printers the summary vengeance of the House. Many of the members complained bitterly of this breach of the privileges of Parliament, and of "being put into print by low fellows"; but Pelham had the sense to tolerate them, saying, "Let them alone; they make better speeches for us than we can make for ourselves." Altogether, the House of Commons exhibited the most deplorable aspect that can be conceived. The Ministry had pursued Walpole's system of buying up opponents by place, or pension, or secret service money, till there was no life left in the House. Ministers passed their measures without troubling themselves to say much in their behalf; and the opposition dwindled to Sir John Hinde Cotton, now dismissed from office, and a feeble remnant of Jacobites raised but miserable resistance. In vain the Prince of Wales and the secret instigations of Bolingbroke and Doddington stimulated the spirit of discontent; both Houses had degenerated into most silent and insignificant arenas of very commonplace business. "It certainly will be. Miss Widgeon," answered Maria, with strictly "company manners." "One who has never had a brother exposed to the constant dangers of army life can hardly understand how glad we all feel to have Si snatched from the very jaws of death and brung back to us." "Just plug at 'em as you would at a crow, and then go on your way whistlin'?" persisted Harry. "Hurroo!" echoed Hennessey; "that's the ticket." "Come forward, keeper," continued the baron, "and state how these arrows came into your hands!" "Yes." HoMEJULIA¾©Ïã2018ÏÂÔØ
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