# tellal



## shawnee

Merhaba,
I was looking for the Turkish for 'town crier' and thought it would be _tellal,_ but find that the dictionary gives 'middleman' as the meaning. As I am interested in its corrupted form as a Greek loan word '_ntelalis_', I would probably be looking for an old usage.


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## Volcano

*Middleman is the other mean of it in economy.As 'town crier', I think it comes from 'tell all' *


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## macrotis

*Tellal*, originally _dellal_,  is also a town crier. It comes from the Arabic root d-l-l. Still living words _delil _and _delalet _(and now obsolete _istidlal_, _medlul_, _müdellel) _are from the same root.


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## shawnee

Teşekkür ederim marcotis. It is just what I needed. One further question are there any diacriticals required in writing this word?
PS. Volcano: I know 'tell all' is great!


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## macrotis

shawnee said:


> Teşekkür ederim marcotis. It is just what I needed. One further question are there any diacriticals required in writing this word?



You're welcome. As far as I know no diacriticals are needed for this word (but in older books there may be accent circumflex on *a* to indicate that *l*'s are palatal).


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## yavuzotar

shawnee said:


> Merhaba,
> I was looking for the Turkish for 'town crier' and thought it would be _tellal,_ but find that the dictionary gives 'middleman' as the meaning. As I am interested in its corrupted form as a Greek loan word '_ntelalis_', I would probably be looking for an old usage.



Dear Shawnee:

"Tellal" as town-crier is ok. This is the original sense of the word. But 'middleman' and 'broker' (especially real-estate broker or agent) you found in your dictionary are also correct. In not so distant Turkish "Evi tellala verdik" meant "We engaged a real estate agent to sell/let the house." The derivative "tellaliye"  is the commission paid to the agent.

regards


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