Yesterday, I happened to meet a Turkish man on the net. He's a University student majored in Sea Harbour Management. I learned something from him. Previously I heard Uyghur's language is very close to Turkish. Without learning, they can understand each other. So, I'd like to verify that. Here is the conversation between us:
"How to say 'good' in Turkish?"
"iyi."
"Not Yaksi?"
"No."
"Strange, I heard one group of people in Xinjiang, they claim their language is very close to yours. It's just like a dialect of Turkish. They say yaksi which means good."
"Yahsi right? Azerbaijan Turks and Uyghur Turks use this word. It means beautiful."
"Can you understand their language?"
"Some vocabularies are the same. Some are similar. Some we can figure out"
According to him, the purpose of Chinese building the Great Wall was to defend the Turks. He also said the Turks are the descendants of Ottoman, and Ottoman is the descendant of Ghengis Khan. He told me Ghengis Khan is also a Turk, which is a wrong concept. In fact, both Turkic language and Mongolic language belong to the Altaic language group. So there might be some similarities. Actually, Ghengis Khan is not at all a Turk, he is a Mongol who killed multi-millions of Chinese and Turks. I don't know why Turks are still worshipping him. Maybe it's because he's good at fighting? Talk about the Great Wall, I never thought it was useful. It was indeed used for defending ethnic groups including Turks. Suddenly I felt Qin Shi Huang did a wonderful thing. He protected Chinese so well. The guy did mention that the Wall consumed lots of their energy, so they decided to go to the west instead. But on the other hand, is that a way to solve the racial conflict simply by letting them in? So that Chinese and Turks would mingle together and alter their natural characteristics? Chinese will have sharper features like: bigger eyes, straight noses, taller and stronger; meanwhile Turks will become much smoother in both physical look and temper? No one knows. But one thing is for sure -- in the end, the whole world will have only one race, because that's where we all came from, the same ancestor. We will go back to that state in the end.
However, currently we are different. Not only the look, but also the character. History played a very important role. Our Chinese are basically farmers. As a farmer, you must be patient. From ploughing, sowing, until harvesting, it will take about a year. Chinese have a habit of living close to each other, learning to be tolerant, mild, gentle, humble (they experience dealing with their neighbours), also more patient as previously explained, shy and introverted; on the other hand, Turks are nomadic people. As a result, they are more hot blooded, short tempered and hospitable in comparison to the Chinese. Chinese are more civil, and 'seem' to be friendly. As I mentioned just now, Chinese are living in a big community, always surrounded by many different people; but Turks hardly mix with outsiders, keeping within their own family circle. You can easily find a Turkish man approaching a girl by saying “Hey, sweetheart, you look so beautiful. I'm attracted by you." This seldom happened among Chinese men as they are more reserved. The reason for this is simple. If that Turkish man doesn't make it quick, when will the next time be? Will he ever see the girl again? Maybe next festival celebration? Maybe several years later? Or perhaps even in the next life? Or only in his dreams! It doesn't mean that Chinese men are shallow and superficial, or that Turkish men are more flirtatious. Their individual history and environment have made it so. We have to understand each other. We must try.
最近的新疆种族冲突引起了世人对维吾尔人的好奇，他们是谁？他们从哪里来？他们与汉人的关系是怎样的？刚巧，昨天我在网上遇到了一个土耳其人，他是一名正在学习海港管理学的大学生，历史爱好者。顺便提一句，本人也是历史与文化的痴迷者。我从他那里学到了一些东西。以前我曾听说维语与土耳其语很像，即使不学也能互相听得懂，带着这个问题，我们开始了我们的对话，一下使我们谈话的内容：
“好这个字在土耳其语里怎么说？”
“iyi。”
“咦？ 不是yaksi？”
“不是。”
“这是怎么回事？我听说在新疆有个民族，他们自称他们的语言跟土语很像，就像是土语的一个方言，他们把好叫做yaksi。”
“是yahsi吧？阿塞拜疆人跟维吾尔人用这个字，是美丽的意思。”
“你能听得懂他们的话吗？”
“有些词汇一样，有些类似，还有一些我们能猜出来。”
据他所说，汉人修建长城就是为了抵御突厥人，他也说他们突厥人是Ottoman的后代，而Ottoman又是成吉思汗的后代，他说成吉思汗也是突厥人。这一点他错了，成吉思汗不是突厥人，而是蒙古人。他以为蒙古人也是突厥人的一部分，其实不然，只是从语言学上来讲，突厥语和蒙古语同属阿尔泰语系，它们之间有着相似点，而成吉思汗这个老家伙可是杀死上亿汉人和突厥人的刽子手噢。 真不知为什么到今天这些突厥人反倒崇拜其他来了。就因为他能征善战么？说道长城，我从来就没觉得这矮矮的墙真的有什么作用，他这么一说，令我忽然觉得秦始皇似乎作了一件大好事，要不是他也许汉人早就不知被人欺负成什么样了，那位土耳其朋友确实提到那城墙消耗了他们太多能量，最后他们放弃了东进的念头，而转而往西。可转念一想，要是没那墙，就让突厥人进来的话也不赖呀，也许现在这两个民族早已合二为一了，那也就没有今天这些麻烦了。而且汉人也可以有着一双更大的眼睛跟高高的鼻子，更加高大与强壮。而突厥人也可以长得更加柔和，这岂不是更妙？只是突厥人身上。。。怎么说来着？那个乾隆皇帝的宠妃。。。身有“异香”，这令我们汉人不大习惯，不过话又说回来了，如果人人都有“异香”的话也就没所谓了。从来没见哪个突厥美眉抱怨一个突厥哥哥说：“Darling, you smell bad。”所以说喽，这问题不大，说到底，最后这世界还是要统一，大势所趋，谁也阻挡不了，因为我们来自同一个祖先，最后还要回去。
而现在我们有着很大的不同，不仅在外表上，性格上也是。总的来讲，汉人以农耕为主，喜聚居，这就决定了汉人温和，有耐心，谦虚，这是因为从耕种到收割差不多要一年的时间，这其间还有很多事要做，像除草啦，浇水啦等等，不耐心行吗？而且要与邻居们相处必须要考虑到他人的感受，所以我们谦虚，温和且内向；而突厥人是游牧民族，以家庭为单位，很难见到其他的人，这就决定了他们脾气暴躁，热情好客，你想啊，几年也见不到一个人，好容易见到了，当然热情了，好酒好菜都往外端，临走时还依依不舍，谁知到哪辈子才能见到另外一个呀？经常会见到一个突厥哥哥对刚见面的突厥美眉说：“你好漂亮，我好喜欢你。”并且动手动脚的，这场面在汉人中很难见到。原因也不奇怪，如果这位突厥哥哥不行动迅速的话，不知下次再见这位美眉是何时了？下次的那达慕大会？几年之后？下辈子？亦或只能在梦中相依偎？综上所述，并不是汉人哥哥虚伪，也非突厥哥哥轻浮，历史与环境使然。理解万岁！
