Talk:How happy is the one who says I am a Turk

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Heraldry and vexillology

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The translation of the sentence[edit]

It seems (from at least one discussion on the matter as well as my elementary knowledge of Turkish grammar) that this translation is incorrect. It's a translation of the same sentence but with the final "e" removed. The final "e" makes the "diyene" ("the one who says") dative rather than nominative. As someone in the discussion suggests, if we think of "ne mutlu" as a fixed expression meaning something like "Cheers to" or "Here's to", then it's like "Here's to the one who says 'I am a Turk.'" Of course, I will yield to Turkish-English bilinguals on this matter, but I wanted to bring it up for, at the least, my own instruction.

In addition, the quotation as given, even if it is correct, is ambiguous. It can mean "How happy is Orhan over there who says that I, Erdem, am a Turk" or "How happy am I, Erdem, for saying that I, Erdem, am a Turk". The latter, of course, is what's intended. It should be conveyed with quotes: How happy is the one who says 'I am a Turk'. Largoplazo (talk) 14:40, 5 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure if the English translation has a reliable source or not, but the problem is with translating "Ne mutlu" to "How happy". The noun after "ne mutlu" is always in dative case, as you can see in the fixed expression "ne mutlu sanA". I would translate "ne mutlu sana" as "good for you" or "lucky you". Here "how happy" does not make much sense. The literal translation would be "happiness towards". Turkish grammar/structures is heavily influenced by Persian and I can see a calque from Persian here too: خوش به حالت.

I would translate the sentence as "Happiness to the one who says 'I am a Turk'" or "Good for the one who says 'I am a Turk'". 4nn1l2 (talk) 05:07, 10 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]