#3: Kalkún

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day here in the United States, and so everyone who isn't vegetarian or vegan is either defrosting their turkeys in anticipation or dueling to the death for the last one at the local grocery store. As such, it seems like a good time to talk about the Icelandic word for "turkey," kalkún.

The world kalkún is derived from the name of the southern Indian city of Calicut (Kozhikode). This "city of spices" is well known for its extensive history, rich culture, lovely tropical climate, and, coincidentally, for having not a single thriving population of wild turkeys. That's because wild turkeys are endemic to North America, so the only way to get one into Calicut is to ship it across two oceans in a boat or a plane. So, why is the turkey called "the bird of Calicut" in Iceland? The likely answer is that they were confused with peafowl, which can be found there. Since turkeys are not native to Iceland, they are seen as exotic animals there, and when the defining characteristic of the creature is the fact that it's the "not-from-Iceland bird," the specifics of where it actually does come from probably don't really matter.

But Iceland is not the only country that doesn't have its biogeography straight; the truth is that no one seems to really know where turkeys come from. The Dutch kalkoen, Swedish kalkon, Lithuanian kalakutas, and Finnish kalkkuna all refer to the turkey-less city of Calicut as well. Meanwhile, in Greek, Khmer, and Scottish Gaelic, it's the "French Chicken" (γαλοπούλα, មាន់បារាំង, and cearc frangach, respectively). The French, though, have jumped on the India bandwagon, and call the bird la dinde (literally, "the thing from India"). India, of course, knows that they don't really have any turkeys, so they've joined the Portuguese in claiming that it's actually from South America (The word for turkey in both Hindi and Portuguese is peru). At least they picked the right hemisphere, though it's worth mentioning that wild turkeys aren't actually found in Peru or anywhere south of Mexico. Meanwhile, in the Arabic-speaking world, it's from Rome (ديك رومي, "Greco-Roman bird"), and the Albanians, not wanting to be outdone, say that it comes from no country at all but rather from the depths of the ocean-- they call it the gjel deti, or "sea rooster." And if you've ever wondered why the English word "turkey" shares its name with the county of Turkey, the simple answer is that in the 16th century British merchants were easily confused  too. Turkeys shipped from North America to Britain at the time passed through Constantinople along the way, and so they came to be known as "Turkey birds." The only ones who seemed to actually have any clue were speakers of the Native American Miami-Illinois language, who called it nalaaohki pileewa, or "native bird." Unfortunately, Miami-Illinois has been extinct since the 20th century.

Left: The actual range of the wild turkey, Meleagris gallopavo; Right: Where people think it lives.

So, tomorrow, as you're eating your turkey (or turducken or tofurkey or whatever portmanteau you like best), remember that Thanksgiving isn't just about about appreciating what we have, getting ready to buy what we haven't, and celebrating the kindness of people who were eventually pushed to the brink of extinction. It's also about that most American of attributes-- global ignorance. At least we're not alone, though.

Happy Thanksgiving, all! :-)

WORD SUMMARY:
kalkún, -s, -ar (m): turkey

Posted in: Animals, Holidays, Nouns