But English, Turkish, Hindi, and French aren’t the only languages with geographical confusion over the origin of this gobbling bird. Irish and Welsh call it after Turkey, but that’s probably just borrowing via English. Armenian, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, and Russian also refer to it as some sort of Indian bird, while Dutch, Indonesian, Icelandic, and Lithuanian get slightly more specific with their inaccurate Indian geographical references and call it a bird of Calicut. Khmer and Scottish Gaelic, on the other hand, call it a French chicken, Malay calls it a Dutch chicken, and various dialects of Arabic refer to it as a Roman, Greek, or Ethiopian chicken. The most sensible of the geographically confused names are the languages that name it after Peru, including Croatian, Hawaiian, and Portuguese. I mean, at least Peru is on the right continental landmass, even if it’s home to the Incas while it was the Aztecs who domesticated the turkey.
The explanation ive heard as to why its called a turkey in English is cause the Turks took a liking to it early on and the association just kinda stuck.
Hawaiian pizza was not invented in Hawaii, but Canada.
Also Turkey (the bird) has to be the most hilariously named bird. Different languages attribute the bird to a different location.
https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/11/turkey-in-turkish-and-other-geographically-implausible-names-for-this-bird.html
Snippet:
Fun!
Nobody wants to take responsibility for this bird
I don’t blame them
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/01/26/minnesota-wild-turkey-attacks/
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/pittsburgh/news/turkeys-terrorizing-residents-north-side-pittsburgh/
One year later in pittsburgh
https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/wild-turkeys-attack-vehicles-people-pittsburgh-neighborhood/SCGD7WRXRNFCFHRUVBZ42AAKKA/?outputType=amp
The explanation ive heard as to why its called a turkey in English is cause the Turks took a liking to it early on and the association just kinda stuck.