portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsTurkish (Türkçe)" and " English (İngilizce)", refers to the
language contact
Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. When speakers of different languages interact closely, it is typical for th ...
phenomenon that occurs primarily where native Turkish speakers frequently communicate in English. The term is first recorded in 1994.Lambert, James. 2018. A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity. ''English World-wide'', 39(1): 31. The term does not refer to English spoken with a Turkish accent, but rather to code switching between the two languages.
Turklish is found in Turkish expatriate communities in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, among the students of the many English speaking universities, high schools and corporations of
Istanbul
Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
and other major cities. To a lesser extent, the same phenomenon can be observed in expatriate communities in Turkey.
Turklish speakers borrow a considerable amount of their vocabulary from English while speaking Turkish. It is not uncommon for a speaker of Turklish to frequently switch back and forth between the two languages, sometimes mid-sentence.
Sometimes, some English idioms and proverbs are directly translated into Turkish, and vice versa. Also, in Turklish the gender pronouns "he" "she" and "it" are sometimes (not always) neutral and can be used interchangeably.