Istanbul The City

An etymology that says "Istanbul" is a Turkish rendering of the Greek phrase for "to the City.":

From http://www.new-byzantium.org/iphbau.html:


 * City-bound suburbanite New Yorkers or San Franciscans, when asked where are they going, more likely will respond: "to the City." These are the exact same words a Byzantine would utter in Greek when responding to the same question. Namely, "ees-teen Pohleen" or "to the Polis" (that is, "to Constantinople"). The refined elegance and euphony of the Greek enunciation deteriorated under the brusqueness of the language of the substitute occupants of Constantinople and became what we hear today, the grotesque "is-tan-bool."

"Eis tan polin" in old/oldish/byzantine Greek, in modern Greek it would be "Stin polin" (or "Stim polin"), so Stamboul would also not be an unnatural rendering. In all cases it means "To the city" (or maybe "In the city"). -- Espen Ore, words-l, 20010626

I have learned more since then: it may be a folk etymology, although I have seen it claimed in serious German introductions to the the History of Greek Language. I found in the Linguist List archives a claim by Hartmut Haberland  that it is directly derived from the name "Konstantinopolis", see:

http://www.emich.edu/~linguist/issues/5/5-1202.html

This reference should be added. But searching through google.com I find quite a few places where they keep up my original claim, one for instance is at:

http://www.hungary.com/corvinus/lib/dunay/dunay01.htm

So I guess this is still open even if I might tend now to believe in the linguist-list claim.

-- Espen S. Ore 20010717