Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/654

TURKEY. and more beautiful species; the plumage is lustrous, and parts of it are ocellated, like the peacock's feathers: the bare head is blue with orange caruncles. This fine species is confined to Yucatan and Central America. The common wild turkey is still found in Mexico, Texas, and Arizona, and in other parts of the West and South, but is scarce east of the Mississippi and north of Virginia or Kentucky, though it formerly ranged well up into New England.

The domestic turkey, the largest of gallinaceous birds, appears to have been introduced into Europe by the Spaniards early in the sixteenth century. The domestic birds vary greatly in plumage from the tints of the wild species to buff, or brown, or pure white, and occasionally produce a crest. On account of its size, and the excellence of its flesh and eggs, the turkey is one of the most valued kinds of poultry. The management of turkeys differs little from that of the common fowl. The young are tender for the first few weeks, and require care, particularly to keep them from getting wet by running among the wet grass, or the like; but afterwards they are sufficiently hardy. See Colored Plate of.  TURKEY BUZZARD. See.  TURKEY GNAT. An insect (Simulium pictipes) of the dipterous family Simuliidæ, identical with the Southern buffalo-gnat, which usually makes its appearance about the time turkeys are setting, and sometimes causes great mortality among those birds. See ; .  TURKEY RED. A name applied to one of the most durable and beautiful colors which have been produced on cotton. The process of dyeing cotton Turkey red is said to have been practiced in India from time immemorial; at present, the main seat of the industry is in the neighborhood of Glasgow. The operations are long and tedious, and their effect could scarcely be explained theoretically. Thus no reason could be given for the part of the process which consists in soaking the cloth in olive oil for a considerable length of time; yet this is well known to be one of the most essential operations in the dyeing process and is believed to be the cause of the rich appearance of the dye. Turkey red is one of the colors of alizarin which can be obtained either from madder (Rubia tinctorum) or by an artificial process of manufacture from coal-tar. See.  TURKEY STONE. A honestone found in Turkey. See.  TURKISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. The Turkish language belongs to the Finno-Ugrian linguistic group, where it holds a first place for conformity to type as well as for extent of domain. Its territory is a zone averaging about 300 miles in width, extending along the fortieth parallel of latitude from the shores of the Adriatic Sea eastward through one hundred degrees of longitude to the westward border of Manchuria.

The chief structural characteristics of the Turkish language are four: (1) The root of every word is inviolable; (2) the root is emphasized by making its leading vowel dominate the vowels and to some extent the consonants added for purposes of inflection, subjecting them to change under regular rules of euphonic harmony. (3) Grammatical forms, especially in the conjugation of the verb, are abundant, regular, logical, and efficient. (4) Determining or modifying syllables are placed at the end of the root. The Turkish verb begins in simplicity. For instance, bak means ‘look thou,’ and is the root of the verb bakmak, to look. Upon this root a series of new verbs may be built: (1) Causative: bakdirmak, to cause or allow to look; (2) reciprocal: bakishmak, to look at one another; (3) reflexive: bakinmak, to look at one's self, i.e. to be perplexed. From these again a further series of new verbs can be made by inserting in each the causative particle: (4) bakdirtmak, to make or let one cause another to look ; (5) bakishdirmak, to cause or allow one to look at another; (6) bakindirmak, to cause or allow one to look at himself, i.e. to be perplexed. All of these new verbs can be conjugated in the positive, the negative, and the impossible form (to look; not to look; and not to be able to look), and, if the sense permits, in all the moods and tenses of the active and passive voices. The same is true of the root of every verb in the language, if the sense permits. It has been computed that, counting all the moods and tenses and numbers and persons, the permutations of which each Turkish verb is capable amount to over 25,000. Yet so simple and clear are the rules that the memorizing of forty-four syllables or particles enables one to build and understand the whole series. The efficiency of the system appears on realizing that Turkish grammar has but one conjugation and no irregular verbs except the auxiliary. The scheme of the verb is that of a form which will fit every root and which is yet so transparent that the root is always visible. The same principle of agglutination to the root is followed in making new verbs from nouns or adjectives and in declining nouns and pronouns. There is no gender for noun, pronoun, or adjective. Adjectives are subjected to no change except for comparison. The Turkish syntax is peculiar. The unit of expression is the paragraph, and there is no punctuation. The subject of the ruling verb is placed as near as possible to the beginning of the paragraph. All subordinate sentences and clauses adding particulars have their verbs in participial form, the sense being thus suspended during the process of building the paragraph, until the chief verb coming in at the very end illuminates the whole.

The investigations of Thomsen and Radloff among the so-called ‘Runic’ inscriptions of the vicinity of Urga and the Orkhon River, south of Lake Baikal, have shown these inscriptions to be Turkish historical records, some of them dating back as far as the sixth century. One of the ancient Turkish alphabets has thus been recovered. But as the Turks became Mohammedans they began to adopt the Arabic alphabet, which is the only one now used by them, except as some of the northern tribes have adopted the Russian alphabet. They have increased the 28 Arabic letters to 33 by the device invented by the Persians of adding dots to five of the Arabic letters. Nevertheless the alphabet is quite unsuited to the Turkish, owing to its lack of proper vowels.

The onrush of the Turks from the Far East into all civilized lands, including China, which