You are correct. That’s because the Romans could spell, unlike the English 
Indy was pretty unlucky that they happened to put an incorrect J there, since they couldn’t have known about the sound shift tripping up any future American Archeologists. Or even about America.
…
Or even… About the letter J?!
According to a random google search, J was only added to the alphabet in 1524. If that’s the case, how could the Crusaders have created the incorrect floor tile with a J on it?!
Fortunately, the rest of the movie is entirely plausible, so we can forgive that one little historical inaccuracy.
That’s absolutely perfect for this thread.
That’s how I typically hear it from news sources, at least NBC. First time, I wondered why they were discussing baseball.
I saw Anderson Cooper interview some talking head.
Cooper was saying “Cutter” the other person was saying “Gutter”.
This guest on the show was not anyone official. I think he’s an employee of CNN.
I found it disconcerting that he and Anderson were saying it differently. They should have cleared that up before they were live, on air.
Good way to sound weird like a foreigner struggling with a local pronunciation. No one in Arabistan puts equal stress on syllables, sahib.
In Arabic, as in English, the stress goes on the first syllable of Qatar. Instead of attempting Arabic /ˈqatˤar/, just say /ˈkɑtɑɹ/ in English and that will be the most generally acceptable all round. Do not say “gutter” (a channel for refuse) or “catarrh” (a pathological condition). Have some respect.
Paris and Versailles*, Kentucky are not pronounced the way those effete French do.
*it’s Ver-SAYLES.
It went the other way around. Latin initial /j/ became /dʒ/ in Old French and Italian too. Middle English got the /dʒ/ because it was influenced by Old French and not by German. The sound changed to /ʒ/ in Modern French. It stayed the same in English and Italian, which is why so many Italian names start with G- or Gi-: Gerusalemme, Giuseppe, Giuliano, and even Giovanna.
I have a friend named Chaiim, and I pronounce it the way he introduced himself. But I never made the connection to Chanukah… and I have been to several. I hope I did not embarass myself too much.
I must have been tired when I wrote that, because the first letter of Chanukah and Chaim (not Chaiim) is chet. “Chai” is the word that the name Chaim is derived from; it means “life”-- therefore the toast “l’chaim!”/“to life!”
The girls’ form of Chaim is Chaya, my own freaking middle name. Sheesh.
On the BBC they pronounce it like KAH-tahr. I also have a couple friends who work as drivers for the Qatari royal family when they visit London a few times per year. They also pronounce it KAH-tahr.
Thank you for confirming my inner thoughts! It’s confusing when necessary stress marks are left off pronunciations. And I couldn’t see how “gutter” was at all close. I don’t know enough Arabic to post corrections, but your post here is the first that looks right to me.
The Latin alphabet probably worked better for writing Latin. English should be written in ᚠᚢᚦᚩᚱᚳ.
Yes, bring back futhark runes.
Did an experiment.
I spoke in ASL.
I said “speak this word, q-a-t-a-r”
To my daughters and the 2 oldest grandkids.(that is 5 persons, I intend to do more when I can find other speakers)
Got 5 answers.
The 2 grandkids tried wrinting the letters on a piece of paper and saying, catter cotter cat-TAR.
I don’t think we’re normal.
It’s not always possible to explain to the speakers of one language how to pronounce the words in another language (assuming that you’re not a Ph.D. in linguistics who’s been trained in all the ways that words can be pronounced). Every language has its own phonemes. Every language has its own syllable structure. Every language has its own tonal system (or no tonal system at all). Even if you learn all about the vocabulary, the grammar, the inflexions, the sentence structures, etc. of a language (as an adult), you could still have problems making yourself understood to a native speaker of the language. You and a native speaker could have to spend a lot of time speaking and listening to each other to make yourselves understood.
Interestingly, it’s easier for a child to learn starting from birth several languages. I recall asking an expert in this at one point and being told that a child could learn three languages starting at birth and end up sounding like a native in each. It’s necessary to have a native speaker of each of those three languages.to talk to a lot. So a person could have a mother, a father, and the neighborhood kids who each speak to them frequently in one of those three languages. As they grow up, they will sound like a child of that age who’s a native speaker.
What do you mean? You know those temple death traps are regularly upgraded and maintained, right? You think all those Rube Goldberg mechanisms just keep on running flawlessly for centuries? Especially with people like Indiana Jones around. Have you seen his handiwork? He is not a toothbrush-and-latex-gloves kind of archaeologist.
I actually know someone like that. My cousin (American) married a Finnish woman. They live in Sweden. Their son is fluent in English, Finnish, and Swedish, since he heard extensive talk in all three languages from the time he was born.
Thank you for the correction: I should have looked this up.
I put a reply in the wrong thread.