Thursday 11 August 2016

duduk/τουτούκκιν

Though the Armenian duduk (or its Turkish relative the mey) isn't traditionally played in Cyprus, the expression "toutoukkin" is commonly used. (As K. put it, it's a "famous, or rather infamous" expression). Similar to the Greek usage of the word "duduka", "toutoukkin" signifies a loud public announcement, of the sort broadcast by small distorted loudspeakers on the trucks of travelling salesmen advertising their goods (most usually watermelons) at the top of their voices. Sometimes it can simply mean the loudspeaker itself. The expression is also metaphorically used to imply that something was publicly announced ("someone made it into a toutoukkin" ["ekamen to toutoukkin"]).
Intriguingly, though perhaps this is completely unrelated, the word duduk is used in the context of Indonesian gamelan music to name a certain type of dance, called kebyar duduk. There are a number of links between Indonesian and middle eastern culture, from the use of the word 'rebab' as a name for the fiddle that is used in gamelan, to the Arabic-influenced music that is usually played on gambus.