Sunday, August 22, 2010

Istanbul Was Constantinople

Been singing this in my head for weeks, now I have the cartoon to go with it.
h/t 50 Days After

 [WP] There are many theories attempting to explain İstanbul's etymology. One widely accepted theory states that, İstanbul (Turkish pronunciation: [isˈtanbuɫ], colloquially [ɯsˈtambuɫ]) derives from the Medieval Greek phrase "εἰς τὴν Πόλιν" [is tin ˈpolin] or, in the Aegean dialect, "εἰς τὰν Πόλιν" [is tan ˈpolin] (Modern Greek "στην Πόλη" /stin ˈpoli/), which means "in the city" or "to the city".[16][19] In modern Turkish, the name is written "İstanbul", with a dotted İ, as the Turkish alphabet distinguishes between a dotted and dotless I. Also, while in English the stress is on the first syllable ("Is"), in Turkish it is on the second syllable ("tan"). Like Rome, Istanbul has been called "The City of Seven Hills" because the oldest part of the city is supposedly built on seven hills, each of which bears a historic mosque.[21]

7 comments:

Bob said...

Hehe, yeah I like that song too. Comes from a group called "They Might Be Giants".

Rick said...

So, what's New York gonna be "Obamabul"?

Nod said...

@Bob - Yo, brother, call me!

Nod said...

@Rick - from what I've seen of it, if you cut NYC adrift from the rest of the state, it'd be an improvement.

Bob said...

It has definitely been way too long. We miss you guys. We're sick now, but we'll call so maybe we can set up something to get together and catch up.

Say "Hi" to our Goddaughter, and big congrats on the new child!

Patrick said...

ah, Tiny Toons + They Might Be Giants. It doesn't get much better than that.

kkollwitz said...

I was in Istanbul for a couple days a couple of years ago, had this song in my head, what a hoot.

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