A few months ago, on the occasion of a column on errors that have entered the French language and our dictionaries, I mentioned the example of Turkey, so named because it was discovered on the American continent, at the time of the conquerors, who thought they had reached … to India. When they came face to face with this amazing bird in 1521, they christened it “Hen of India,” a name that was soon simplified to “turkey,” short and without an apostrophe. The guinea pig suffered from the same compass error, because it also comes not from India but from America. But the unfortunate bird suffers from many other names of wrong geographical origin. Look at this: when our language seems to think that these poultry come from India, the Anglo-Saxons call them turkeys, a word that also means turkey in English, while the Brazilians and Portuguese call them Peru (Peru). What a mess, right? Wait, it’s not over yet. In Turkey, specifically, it is called Hindi (“from India”, therefore, as in English), but in Hindi it is called Peru, as in Portuguese, while in Arabic it is called “Greek chicken” and in Greek “chicken”.
In Iceland and Lithuania, it is called the “Calcutta bird”. (more accurately, “Bird of India” for short). However, this poor bird was actually brought back to Europe by the Spanish during the conquest of Mexico – so it’s no more from Peru than from India! But here it is: the Portuguese believed that the Spaniards brought back the bird from this area, which they later called “Peru”, which at that time also covered Ecuador, Bolivia, part of Argentina, Chile and Colombia. Well, you tell me, But why did the Arabs call it “Greek chicken” and the Greeks “French chicken”?? Well, perhaps the animal simply got to its home by passing through these countries. Moreover, if the English called the turkey, it was because they confused it with the guinea fowl, another type of domestic fowl, which they called either the guinea fowl or the turkey fowl (“guinea fowl” or “turkey”). The guinea fowl actually comes from Africa, not necessarily from Guinea, and often arrives in Europe via Turkey … hence the name turkey, which was called in confusion … the turkey … from Mexico! Also note that in English a “guinea pig” is called a guinea pig (“guinea pig”) … while this cute creature also comes from America! Really, all languages are built on cloths of mistakes…and you know what? I love that!
His latest book, written with Jean-Christophe Establet, is 99 Mistakes Everyone Makes…Except Now You!, ed. Voibert208 pages, 14.90 euros.
