Is it CUT-ter or Kuhn-TAHR? I’ve always used the latter. Or is it something different? like is it pronounced exactly like guitar? or gutter?
Really, it’s kind of in between. But the common “ka-TAAAAAR” goes way too far, which is why it’s swung back to “cutter”.
I’ve been told that the proper English pronunciation should probably be guitar. However, in reality the q is this sound, but the guitarians are very particular about the precise amount of phlegm and croak you have to produce in order for it to be the correct consonant.
Isn’t it more like KAH-tar? With the K pronounced with the tongue as far back as you can. Trying to explain foreign sounds with English is of course almost hopeless.
I hear the question is muddied by the fact that G-like sounds are pronounced unusually in this immediate region relative to the rest of the Arab world. That is, the answer depends in whether you ask an average Arab or a person from Qatar.
You’re correct, Wikipedia says:
In Standard Arabic, the name is pronounced [qtr], while in the local dialect it is [itar].
That’s my vote.
Until the last month or so, I always said kuh TAR.
After hearing news people as recently as tonight, it’s cutter.
On the various Olympics broadcasts, during the parade of nations, it’s always pronounced “cutter”.
My 7th grade history teacher called it KAY-tar, so that’s what it is in my head. Never knew there was any other way to pronounce it until now.
I’m content to stick to the typical American mispronunciation, option 1 in the poll. Get back to me when we start calling Moscow MoskVA and St. Petersburg Sankt-Peterburg. What amuses me is the person on Diane Rehms’s show who has (one assumes) flawless Arabic pronunciation, and thus (I imagine) takes great pride in pronouncing Al-Qaeda as “Al-<throat-gurgle>aeda”. I think they do the same thing with <throat-gurgle>atar.
Is there something going on in the news I should be aware of?
Ka-TAR.
Yep.
It’s one of those sounds that doesn’t really exist in English (like how Japanese speakers can’t pronounce an English “r” quite right, because their language doesn’t have that sound). Wikipediahas some approximations as sound files, but obviously not a native speaker of the language.
Really, as long as you’re not saying “kwa-ter” they’ll probably appreciate that you at least tried.
Surely we’ve got at least one member here that lives in that general area (an American roughneck in Dubai or a soldier in Iraq would be close enough to at least get the gist of it) and can ask a local to say it into a mic.
Sounds Klingon to me!* :dubious:
*Ka-TAR, not “Yep.”
I used to pronounce it ka-Tar, but having spent a lot of time in region, I hear it pronounced cutter. It still sounds off to me.
My 9th grade history teacher pronounced Djibouti as “DAY-zhee-BOO-dee.” What do I win?
A class action lawsuit against your school district?
I voted “Kuh-TAHR”, but I really pronounce it closer to “guitar” with more of a K subbing in the for the softer (even though nominally hard) G. The emphasis is still on the last syllable, but it’s not the expansive emphasis that seems more common.