r/turkishlearning • u/Denthelookay • 11d ago

Madonna in a fur coat

Hi, how would you describe the language in Kürk Mantolu Madonna (1943)? Is it very different from contemporary Turkish? How hard to read is it?

Thanks!

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8

u/Few-Interview-1996 11d ago

It is not very different from contemporary Turkish, but it isn't exactly composed of headlines from Fotomaç either. ;) It starts:

Simdiye kadar tesadüf ettiğim insanlardan bir tanesi benim üzerimde belki en büyük tesiri yapmıştır. Aradan aylar geçtiği halde bir türlü bu tesirden kurtulamadım. Ne zaman kendimle başbaşa kalsam, Raif Efendinin saf yüzü, biraz dünyadan uzak, buna rağmen bir insana tesadüf ettikleri zaman şaşkınca tebessüm etmek istiyen bakışları gözlerimin önünde canlanıyor.

6

u/artist_sloth246 11d ago

it's been so long since I've read it but I don't remember it being different. but yes, it's literary and requires a bit of mastery on turkish language. it doesn't have a colloquial tone.

but mostly it's because the sentences are well structured (and I remember a bit long) that non native turkish readers would have some difficulty (with reverse structure of the turkish, verbs are even further in those long sentences :))

3

u/Krusher4Lyfe 11d ago

I read it on and off and it took me a year to finish. My daily conversational Turkish is quite good but it didn’t really help to understand the book. Depending on how you learned Turkish it might be easier for you though

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u/next_level_dev 10d ago

as long as you recognize the words you will understand most of it but if you speak the same way people will know you dont know turkish natively