Learn How To Talk About Animals In Turkish

Blog
26 September 2023
By Sarah Angela Almaden
Japanese House

Unsplash: Tolga Ahmetler

If you read the book series or seen the movies The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, surely, you would remember the mighty Aslan. He was the Lion in the story. A great one too. I like Aslan. He was wise and kind and loving. Overall, Aslan was a very good lion and king of Narnia. His name was also very fitting for someone as powerful and true just like him.

Like many people, though, I never really thought much about Aslan’s name. But, recently, upon rereading the stories, I realized that his name isn’t just a random name. In fact, his name “Aslan” means lion in Turkish. Which is kind of cool. I never thought his name would mean something like that, because I thought C.S. Lewis came up with it out of the blue. But I was wrong and that there’s actually more depth to Aslan’s name than it being whipped up at midnight. And that made me wonder if Lewis used other Turkish animal names or just other Turkish words as character names in the series. Perhaps, that is for me to find out. But for now, I am going to share with you a list of animal names and what they’re called in Turkish.

  • dog: köpek (koh-pek)
  • cat: kedi (keh-dih)
  • duck: ördek (uhr-dek)
  • frog: kurbağa (koor-baaa)
  • rabbit: tavşan (tav-shan)
  • chicken: tavuk (tah-vook)
  • fish: balık (bah-luhk)
  • cow: inek (ee-nek)
  • pig: domuz (doh-mooz)
  • snake: yılan (yee-lan)
  • lion: aslan (as-lan)
  • tiger: kaplan (kap-lan)
  • monkey: maymun (my-mun)
  • sheep: koyun (koh-yoon)
  • crab: yengeç (yeng-getch)
  • ant: karınca (kah-ruhn-ja)
  • kitten: yavru kedi (keh-dee yav-roo-suh)
  • hamster: hamster (hams-ter)
  • turtle: kaplumbağa (kap-lum-baaa)
  • bird: kuş (kush)
  • horse: at (aht)
  • lamb: kuzu (koo-zoo)
  • parrot: papağan (pa-pa-aan)
  • lizard: kertenkele (ker-ten-keh-keh)
  • donkey: eşek (eh-shek)
  • rooster: horoz (ho-roz)
  • elephant: fil (fil)
  • fox: tilki (tilki)
  • octopus: ahtapot (ah-tah-pot)
  • whale: balina (bah-lee-na)
  • dolphin: yunus (yoo-noos)
  • fly: sinek (see-nek)
  • spider: örümcek (uh-room-jek)
  • owl: baykuş (by-kush)
  • crocodile: timsah (tim-sah)
  • mosquito: sivrisinek (siv-ree-si-nek)