EITI UK-Telephone Interpretation and Language Translation Services latest news 61

Two-year milestone for Turkish

The interpreting and translation company EITI has announced that - for the 24th month in a row - Turkish was ranked number one in its top ten languages for October 2005. The two-year milestone was reached four weeks after the official opening of membership talks between Turkey and the European Union.

EITI’s top ten is based on the number of requests received for telephone or face to face interpreters from public authorities based in Britain. The data can be used to help key public service providers - such as NHS trusts, police forces, and local and central government - to plan and operate more effectively.

Turkish recorded its first number one ranking in March 2003, and its two-year unbroken run began in November 2003. The monthly rankings for Turkish and Arabic - the language it replaced at the top of EITI’s list - are shown in the chart below.

The official opening of Turkey’s membership talks with the EU was marked by a historic late-night ceremony in Luxembourg on 3 October 2005. Jack Straw, Britain’s foreign secretary, called the event a “truly historic day for Europe and the whole of the international community”.

According to the BBC’s Born Abroad immigration map, there were 54,000 Turkish-born people living in the UK at the time of the 2001 census. 39,000 of these people lived in London, with the largest cluster being 4,000 in north Tottenham.

“For decades the most likely destination for Turkish immigrant workers has been Germany,” the BBC reports, “although this has not prevented a sizeable population of people born in the country settling in Britain.”

The English words yoghurt, tulip and meander all come from Turkish. “The word tulip comes from a Turkish word for turban, because its flower was thought to resemble a turban,” says Kenneth Katzner, a renowned linguist. “The word meander comes from the ancient name of the Menderes River of western Turkey which was noted for its winding course.”