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Someone posted a screenshot of a google translation of the word cannibal on a social network site. It seems to translate to yamyam in Turkish. I found that both funny and bizarre at first and am curious about the origin of the word. I double checked with the PONS dictionary and they also have it as yamyam. A web search turned up a reddit post where a user commented "Classic case of onomatopoeia.". Wikipedia says: Onomatopoeia is the use or creation of a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes.

It seems like a good explanation, but I'm not familiar with Turkish language and I'm curious to know more. Is it correct and it is "a case of Onomatopoeia"? I'm still not sure the translation is accurate and this officially looking Turkish dictionary I found, hosted by the Turkish government, doesn't have a word yumyum.

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    The governmental dictionary does have it if you spell it right: it’s not yumyum, but yamyam (as indeed your first and second sources both say). But it does appear to be onomatopoetic and intended to invoke cannibalism. The word is claimed to have been applied to various African tribes to make them seem barbarian, and Turkish then borrowed the term as a generic word for ‘cannibal’ (in the same way that cannibal derives from a name for the Caribs).
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Jul 11, 2023 at 21:46
  • You're right, I automatically connected it with the english expression. Thanks for your explanation. It seems you must have an IP from Denmark to see the content of this book.
    – Hoov
    Commented Jul 11, 2023 at 21:55
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    Gah, stupid Google Books changing their TLD to match your IP without telling you – here’s what should be an international version.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Jul 11, 2023 at 22:02
  • I'm not sure I understand the reason the question was closed. I did not assume the meaning must be the same as when the word was used the first time. Would it be better if i asked about the history of the word vs its origin?
    – Hoov
    Commented Jul 20, 2023 at 20:27
  • It’s simply that the etymology or history of specific words in general is considered off-topic here. Etymology as a study of diachronic sound change and development is on-topic (that’s a very big part of historical linguistics), but it’s how those systems work that’s linguistic, not the path any given word has taken. As a word that appears to have been based on sound symbolism throughout most of its life span, it’s even quite likely not to have followed any systematicity at all.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Jul 20, 2023 at 22:52

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There is a root in certain branches of Niger-Congo, roughly nam, meaning "animal; meat" which is ubiquitous in Bantu as nyama and similar words. It has been borrowed into a number of unrelated languages (including Hausa and Jamaican Creole), and also is metaphorically extended to mean "eat". The non-Bantu languages attesting this loan are mainly in the Plateau region of Nigeria. Another possible branch of borrowing would be via the word for yam, attributed to West African languages via a word meaning "eat", however I haven't found support from any reputable source (there are hundred of languages to check and I have only a few dictionaries on hand).

It is supposedly a name given by the Dinka to their neighbors the Azande. One Dinka root for "eat" is cam ("meat" is riŋ); niaan is "overcook", and nhiam is "proud", the point being that there is no support for the claim that the term actually came from Dinka, and insofar as Zande is in the same sub-phylum as Bantu and is in proximity with Bantu, it is more likely that this has nothing to do with Dinka, other than the claim that they promulgated the name. In the 1926 article "Observations on Some Aspects of Religion Among the Azande", Captain Philipps states that Sudanese and Egyptian Arabs adopted this terms for all Africans whom they considered to be cannibals, but again that claim lacks substantial support. See also "Cannibalism in the Bahar el Ghazl", Sudan notes and records (Spence, 1920). The editor of the volume asserts

The Arabs can hardly have adopted the the Dinkas, as it occurs under the variants Gnem-Gnem, Jem-Jem in the medieval Arab geographers and early maps and always to describe the people of the cannibal belt of Africa to the south of the northern Moslems. The word is doubtless onomatopoeic to describe the gnashing

It is not too much of a stretch to think that this was onomatopoetically-reinforced borrowing from Niger-Congo via Arabic when delivery to Turkish, but more historical detail on said Arab geographers would be necessary before reaching a firm negative or positive conclusion.

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    In Russian, ням-ням (nyam-nyam) is onomatopoeia meaning "to eat".
    – Anixx
    Commented Jul 12, 2023 at 9:17
  • Thank you! I find it very entertaining and enlightening to read your substantiated replies.
    – Hoov
    Commented Jul 13, 2023 at 10:03

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