What does “kanka” mean in Turkish?

The clip kicks off with “Kanka, yeter ya!” (“Bro, enough already!”). Kanka is the go-to Turkish slang for a close friend, a “bro” or “bestie.” It’s shortened from kan kardeşi, “blood sibling,” and it’s completely gender-neutral, used constantly among young Turks for their tightest friends.

You’ll also hear the fuller kanki, and the possessive kankam (“my bestie”). Turks have a warm habit of addressing friends with family words too: abi (older brother) and abicim (bro, dear) get used for buddies who aren’t actually relatives. The crisis in the video, by the way, is over an atlet (a tank-top undershirt). Learn kanka and you instantly sound like a friend, not a textbook.