Originally posted by Alexander01
That's correct. Turks always called it Istanbul, it being the name of the city in their language.
That's correct. Turks always called it Istanbul, it being the name of the city in their language.
People who are actually into the historical development of Greek and Turkish tell me that a derivation of Istanbul from Konstantinopolis is highly unlikely. The best bet seems to be it derives from of Greek eis ten polin "to/in the city", which will have been pronounced something like "stin bul" in northern Greek dialects of the late medieval period.
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