The Dardanelles

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 26, 31 May 1915, Page 6

The Dardanelles

Turkish place-names are ext-emoly difficult to remember, not only because they are unfamiliar, but because the same name is spelt in so many different ways-. There is no general agreement as to the correct way of transliterating the Arabic characters or of representing the Turkish pronunciation. Perhaps the easiest way ol fixing the names in one’s mind is to remember the meaning of the words which occur most frequently. “Bahr” means, “sea’’ or “ocean,” and “SeddeUßahr” is! the “Ocean Barrier,” “Kilid-Bahr” is “Key of the Ocean,” “Kaleh” (or “Kale”) means “fort,” and “Kum Kaleh” is “Sand Fort.” “Chanak Kalessi” (the si is a grammatical termination) is “Potterp Fort,” “Kaleh-Sultanieh’’ is “Royal Fort,” “Tepeh” means “hill,” “Gaba Tepeh” is “Shapeless Hill,” “Shehr” for “Shehir”,) means “town,” “EskiShehr” is “Old Town,” “Yeni-Shehr” “New Town”—and these two names occur with bewildering frequency in Turkish geography. “Hissar” means “castle,” “Hissarlik” would be the “place where there is a castle” and Eski Hissarlik” might bo given as “Old Castletown.” Useful words to remember are -“Bunin” (or “Burnu”) “cape,” “Dereh” (or “Dere”—“valley,” “Keui” (or .“Kdl”)— “village,” “Kavah” “poplar,” “Fanar”— “lighthouse,” and “Liman”—“harbor.” Of adjectives after “Eski” and “Yeni” (“old” and “new”), those most commonly occurring in placenames are “Ak”—“white,” “Kara”— “black,” “Sari”—“yellow,” “Runili” —“European,” and “Anatol” (or “Anadoi”) —“Asiatic” are often used to distinguish two places of the same name; Rurnili Kavak and Anatol Kavak are the names of two places on opposite sides of the Bosphorus recently bombarded by the Russians.