# Arabic Pronunciation Question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabic-pronunciation-question/736228>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 31, 2015, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabic-pronunciation-question/736228 "2015-10-31T03:50:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabic-pronunciation-question/736228/1 "2015-10-31T03:50:31Z")

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I was listening to the radio and heard Bedouin pronounced something like “Beshouin.” They also pronounced “Sayyid” something like “Sayyish.”

Is this correct…or perhaps correct for old times but not today…or…???

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**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabic-pronunciation-question/736228/2 "2015-10-31T05:04:52Z")

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What dialect was it? What country? I don’t know of this being a dialectal feature in Arabic; perhaps the speaker was missing teeth.

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**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabic-pronunciation-question/736228/3 "2015-10-31T19:55:45Z")

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The speakers were English. I think they were trying to pronounce things correctly, but it seemed odd.

In Arabic, are Bedouin and Sayyid normally pronounced pretty much the way the spelling suggests?

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**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\
**Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabic-pronunciation-question/736228/4 "2015-10-31T20:02:28Z")

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> [@Trinopus](#):
>
> The speakers were English.

As in they were from England? or they were speaking English

> [@](#):
>
> In Arabic, are Bedouin and Sayyid normally pronounced pretty much the way the spelling suggests?

The word Bedouine is a plural, and pronounced I think for English ears basically just like bed-ou-ween. There is no one that changes dal to shin.

The word Sayyid changes more but the mashreqi dialects all have it open voweled, so I think it will sound to the english ears just as it is spelled there.

This is strange, if it is one person, they probably have a speech problem.

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**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2015, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabic-pronunciation-question/736228/5 "2015-11-01T02:37:37Z")

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I have a suspicion they were faking it. Thank you for the clarification!

(Oh, poo, I might as well give you the source: it was “The Ghost Corps,” an old time radio show, with mystery, intrigue, and British Imperialism the way Kipling would have liked it, a show from the 1930s. Bad accents, knives and beggars and bazaars and high drama spy schtick. And Beshouins following their Sayyish. Maybe the actor had some teeth missing.)

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**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2015, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arabic-pronunciation-question/736228/6 "2015-11-01T04:00:35Z")

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The actor who couldn’t say Shibboleth!