# 'U'sama bin Laden? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 2, 2012, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usama-bin-laden/614514 "2012-03-02T02:44:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usama-bin-laden/614514/21 "2012-03-03T22:19:52Z")
Yes, I believe I was trying to avoid that kind of thing when I asked for non-“Fox News sucks” reasons… ---
**Author:** ![isaiahrobinson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@isaiahrobinson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/isaiahrobinson)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2012, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usama-bin-laden/614514/22 "2012-03-03T22:21:48Z")
Bin Laden himself actually used the spelling “Usama” in [the only document](http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2001/10/how_do_you_spell_osama.html) we have where he Romanizes his own name. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usama-bin-laden/614514/23 "2012-03-05T17:37:57Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > I wish they would finally get it over with and split off Egyptian dialect into its own language, and stop calling it Arabic. The way Moroccan, Egyptian, Levantine, Iraqi, and Khaliji idioms are all called Arabic is like one person studying Portuguese, another studying Rumantsch, and another person studying Romanian, and all claiming they’ve learned Latin. And nobody can understand the others very well. Calling the Egyptian vernacular “Arabic” confuses things more than it clarifies. Chinese pulls the same kind of crap. The different “dialects” of Chinese are really seperate languages. A person speaking Mandarin and a person speaking Cantonese (for example) cannot understand each other. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usama-bin-laden/614514/24 "2012-03-05T18:36:36Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Personally, I just don’t like transliteration systems that require diacritics. Why not just double the vowel, for example? Because, a doubled vowel is more ambiguous. It can mean other things. I would love to see more use of diacritics. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usama-bin-laden/614514/25 "2012-03-06T05:11:25Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Because, a doubled vowel is more ambiguous. It can mean other things. I would love to see more use of diacritics. Examples? Diacritics interrupt the flow of typing, and one of the things I love about English is the complete lack of any need to ever actually use them. You can if you want, but they are optional. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2012, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usama-bin-laden/614514/26 "2012-03-06T08:10:21Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Examples? See post #18. > [@](#): > > Diacritics interrupt the flow of typing This depends on your keyboard layout. If you find yourself having to type a lot of diacritics, then you should probably switch to one of the English international layouts. Every modern operating system makes it easy to do this. ---
**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usama-bin-laden/614514/27 "2012-03-07T01:52:32Z")
Okay, if that’s actually the _more_ correct way to spell it, how did 'O’sama bin Laden become the standard spelling in English speaking media? ---
**Author:** ![isaiahrobinson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@isaiahrobinson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/isaiahrobinson)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2012, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usama-bin-laden/614514/28 "2012-03-07T02:25:51Z")
> [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](#): > > Okay, if that’s actually the _more_ correct way to spell it, how did 'O’sama bin Laden become the standard spelling in English speaking media? That’s roughly how it sounds when you hear the name, and it’s what journalists happened to start using. Usama is probably a slightly better approximation but they’re both wrong, so it’s just been a case of convention to stick with Osama. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usama-bin-laden/614514.md?page=1)