Any Arabic-speaking Dopers out there? Need a word spelling

[Infovore]

A friend of mine is trying to find the accepted spelling of the Arabic word for “alchemy.” So far he’s come up with:

Al-Khimia
Al-Kimiya
Al-Kimia
Al-Khemia

Are any of those correct? If not, what’s the generally accepted spelling?

Thanks in advance!

[yBeayf]

None of them are truly correct, as Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet. Edit: Ok, I don’t have my Arabic dictionary with me, and I’m seeing dueling spellings for the word. Does anybody else know if the first letter is a khaa or a kaaf?

There’s no official transliteration scheme for Arabic, but as long as you are able to differentiate between letters that are distinct in Arabic but sound similar to English speakers, you should be alright.

[John_Mace]

From wikipeida:

In the history of science, alchemy (Arabic: الخيمياء, al-khimia)

Etymology

The word chemistry comes from the earlier study of alchemy, which is basically the quest to make gold from earthen starting materials. As to the origin of the word “alchemy” the question is a debatable one, it certainly has Greek origins, and some, following E. Wallis Budge, have also asserted Egyptian origins. Alchemy, generally, derives from the old French alkemie; and the Arabic al-kimia: “the art of transformation.”

[yBeayf]

From wikipeida:

I saw that, but then again in “List of Arabic loanwords in English” it spelled the word "الكيمياء ".

[Kimstu]

@yBeayf

I saw that, but then again in “List of Arabic loanwords in English” it spelled the word "??? ".

That’s the spelling that Wehr and Cowan’s Arabic dictionary has for it: kaaf, not khaa.

@yBeayf

There’s no official transliteration scheme for Arabic

There’s no unique “official” scheme, but there are several recognized standard schemes. In the ALA-LC Arabic romanization system, which is probably the most commonly used strict transliteration system, "??? " would be represented with the characters “a”, “l”, hyphen, “k”, “i” with a macron, “m”, “i”, “y”, “a” with a macron, apostrophe.

[Edit: Hmm, how do I get yBeayf’s Arabic properly reproduced in a quote?]

[John_Mace]

@yBeayf

I saw that, but then again in “List of Arabic loanwords in English” it spelled the word "الكيمياء ".

The first one is probably right, given this from the dictionary:

[Origin: 1325–1375; earlier alchimie < OF alquemie < ML alchymia < Ar al the + kīmiyā’ < Gk kémeía transmutation; r. ME alconomye, equiv. to alk(imie) + (astr)onomye

[yBeayf]

The first one is probably right, given this from the dictionary:

That would indicate the second one is right, i.e. that it’s spelled with kaaf instead of khaa, as is confirmed by Wehr per Kimstu. Someone should correct the Wikipedia article on Alchemy.

[John_Mace]

@yBeayf

That would indicate the second one is right…

:smack: Yes, that’s right. I always have trouble with big numbers, like “2”.

[Infovore]

Thanks, everybody! So let me just make sure I’ve got it right–the second one (al-kimiya) is the closest?

[yBeayf]

Thanks, everybody! So let me just make sure I’ve got it right–the second one (al-kimiya) is the closest?

Of the ones you listed, yes.