Surnames from French and other European languages

Fırtına is an ordinary weather word in Turkish today, meaning ‘storm’. Its origin is Italian: dictionaries trace it to fortuna, which meant ‘fortune’ and, at sea, ‘storm’. The surnames Fırtına, Kaptan and Volkan are all words that passed into Turkish from European languages. This page groups the European languages other than Greek: Italian, French, Latin and the rest.

The layer formed in two separate periods. The first was the age of Mediterranean trade and seafaring. From the late Middle Ages, Venetian and Genoese ships worked the ports of the eastern Mediterranean. Many terms for ships, sails and harbour work entered Turkish from Italian. Kaptan ‘captain’ comes from Italian capitano, iskele ‘quay, landing stage’ from scala, and fırtına from fortuna. Nautical Turkish also holds many Greek words, and for some terms the source language is disputed.

The second period began in the 19th century. After the Tanzimat reforms, French became the main foreign language of the Ottoman educated class. Many words for administration, education, science, technology and everyday life were taken from French. Most international words of Latin and Greek origin also reached Turkish through French. Volkan ‘volcano’ comes from French volcan, which goes back to Vulcanus, the Latin name of the god of fire. In 1952 Andreas Tietze published a study of the changes in form that recent European loans underwent in Turkish.

Turkish adapted these words to its own sound pattern too. Initial consonant clusters were broken up or given a prothetic vowel: Italian scala became iskele. Unstressed final vowels were often dropped: capitano → kaptan. Vowel harmony also asserted itself in many words.

In surnames this layer is small. One reason is timing. Most French words were still new in Turkish in 1934, and people choosing a surname leaned towards old, settled vocabulary. Older Italian seafaring loans are therefore more frequent in surnames than French words. Mixed forms occur as well. Kaptanoğlu adds Turkish -oğlu ‘son of’ to a word of Italian origin. Postacı ‘postman’ joins posta, a word of Italian origin, to the Turkish agent suffix -cı.

The page is named after French, but its scope is all European languages. Each record names the specific language in its root data: Italian, French or Latin.

Turkish spells loanwords as they are pronounced. The Turkish spelling of European words therefore often moves away from the source spelling: French chauffeur becomes şoför, and coiffeur becomes kuaför. The same principle holds in surnames; Volkan is French volcan written with Turkish sounds. Words from English arrived mainly after the mid-20th century, when surname choice was largely complete. Surnames of English origin are therefore particularly rare in this layer.

The sources used are the Nişanyan dictionary and the TDK Güncel Türkçe Sözlük. Where a word came from tells us nothing about the people who carry the surname.