You’ve just described at least four consonants in the Semitic language family…
You are totally wrong. As anyone knows, Iraquois do not wear hats, they wear beach towels due to all the sand in their country.
Edited sailor’s post to close the tag, at his request.
Lynn
Of course, on the US Most Wanted playing cards set, they spell his name Saddam Husayn. Oh, and the FBI Most Wanted list spells Osama bin Laden as Usama.
Arabic transilteration is a tricky business. Go, as they say, figure.
I’m taking limited Arabic as well.
As for Osama/Usama, the Arabic pronunciation’s first vowel tends to favor the latter, sounding more like the vowel in “boon” than in “globe.”
As to the “i” vs “y” debate, Arabic is a tad like Latin in this regard. The Arabic letter, “yaa’” can be used both as a consonant and a vowel, sort of like the Latin “I.” (Remember, the Latin original spelling of Julius was Iulius, with a pronounced “Y” sound as in the beginning of “you.”) The letter acts as both a consonant and a vowel, depending on where it appears in the sentence, so English translators are left with how to translate that particular letter. Personally, if I were translating the word “Arabia,” it would look like “'Arabiyya,” but that’s just me.
The other letter that works this way, with multiple functions as a vowel and a consonant, is the waaw, which acts like the vowel in “boon” and the consonant “w,” depending on the position.
And yes, there is no such English equivalent for many of the Arabic letters. The aforementioned 'ayn being the most prominent, though there are others.
Though I don’t understand the multiple spellings of Qadaffi (or however it’s spelled.) Arabic has two destinct letters that are translated as “q” and “kh.” As far as I know, the ending of “Iraq” and the beginning of “Khomeini” are quite different letters, one of them being the vaguely “q” sound in the back of the throat, and the other being the sound of the Scottish “loch.” Strange.
Damn! Beat me to it. I think I’ll sioux you for that…
I believe that his name begins with a qaf, but in the dialect of Arabic he speaks, it’s pronounced like a “g”, so transliterators are torn between writing it like it’s written, or writing it like the guy pronounces it.
Frikken’ dialects. Why can’t these Arabic-speakers decide on one uniform way to speak their common written language.
Like the Chinese. :dubious:
Then I’d have to pawnee my Jeep cherokee to pay you or I’m up the creek. I knew I should’ve invested in High-da finance in my Ute…
You’d think I woulda kota whiff of this coming… Or, as Britney might say, “oops, I Michigan”.
whispers to Noone Special We’re gonna eat Crow and get a black footprint on our butts from the mods if we don’t stop posting jokes in the Pit…
(whispers back) But I thought it was OK as long as the jokes were punny!
Ouch! OUCH!! OK, OK I’ll stop!!! Just stop kicking me! Please!
