Jon Pretty

The world's languages can be grouped into those which call oranges oranges, those which call oranges apples and those which call oranges Portugals.

Of those languages which call oranges oranges, a guest consonant often makes a cameo appearance at the start: N in Spanish (naranja), L in Portuguese (laranja) and T in Catalan (taronja), while Italian (arancia) does without.

It's ironic that they're called "portugals" in Turkey, because in Portugal a turkey is called a peru, though at least in Peru a turkey is called a turkey. Elsewhere (e.g. Poland, France), a turkey is called an Indian. Basically nobody knows where the bird came from.

Perhaps Perú Spanish is different, but a turkey in Spanish is pavo which I don't think is a reference from where it comes from.

No, you're right... I think Google Translate just gave me the Spanish translation of the country instead of the meat!

In Catalunya they say Gall D'indi which express procedències from India. But there's the theory that Columbus thought to have reached India instead of the new continent so perhaps that's the reason. In Mallorca we call them indiot (probably a variation of the above)