Turkish Lesson: Welcome and Bye Bye

Today i hiked out to Homer's Caves (I'll have a different post on that adventure. But as i walked out I'd the town of Eğridere, İ saw these signs and thought to pass them on to my readers.

Hoşgeldiniz (hawsh-gel-dee-neez) is the way to say, "Welcome." And since Turkish feels like it's arranged backwards to my native language, the sign translates to "welcome to Eğridere

(That smile over the g is unique to Turkish. The g is silent, but it turns the vowel before it into a long vowel EE-rih-der-eh instead of EH-rih-der-eh.)

On the other side of the sign, for those leaving town, are the words, "Güle güle." İ love saying this, but i have yet to have a Turk take me seriously when i use it. İt means "bye bye," and anyone who uses it above the age of seven sounds immature.

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