Istanbul Diary: Aryan
I drank a lot of Aryan when I was in Turkey. It is a salted yogurt drink that tastes exactly like salted lassi. A cold glass of Aryan is perfect on a hot summer day, especially if you're dehydrated from a lot of alcohol consumption the previous night :)
Did you know that yogurt originated in Turkey? The nomadic tribes of Eastern Europe and Western Asia were tinkering around with defermentation and chanced upon this manna. The ancient Assyrian word for yogurt, lebeny, meant "life." The word yogurt also comes to us from the Turkish language. The root "yog" means roughly to condense.
I haven't been able to find a suitable answer for why this Turkish yogurt drink is called "Aryan." Any suggestions?
posted by lulu at 8:37 AM
4 Comments:
In our early school days,we were told about the migration of Aryans from Central Europe to India.And the beginning of the Indus Valley Civilization.Aryan is a word which has its origin in Iran and I suspect that it has the same meaning as in Sanskrit,i.e.noble.Turkey shares its borders with Iran and it is likely that the usage has moved from Iran to Mesapotamia to Turkey.
The other explanation,which I hope is not true,is that the person behind this yogurt product is a follower of Hitler who propounded the theory of race superiority.After all there is still lot of German influence in Turkey.A large number of workers in German factories hail from Turkey.
So,you drank some noble and superior stuff!
lools, according to orhan pamuk's istanbul, it's 'ayran'. so i guess it has nothing to do with aryans.
Hi, I loved your blog. It's so nice.
By the way it's called "Ayran" in Turkey.
:) It's called " A Y R A N " not aryan. You are misspelling
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