What is the proper pronounciation of Qatar?

In most US media, the country’s name is pronounced: k&-'tär (sounding very close to guitar, like katar)

In interviews from the country, I’ve heard locals, speaking english, refer to it as: 'kwet-t&h (how we Americans might pronounce “qwettah”, if it were a word)

Merriam Webster Online shows: 'kä-t&r, 'gä-, 'g&-; k&-'tär (which would seem to sound out as “kotter”, “gotter”, “gutter”, and “guitar”, but doesn’t even include the other alternative I mentioned above, and seems to show the one most common round these parts as least preferred).

The CIA FactBook states:

but “cutter” wasn’t even suggested by M-W.

The pronounciation guide I used above is:

& as a and u in abut
ä as o in mop
e as e in bet

So what is the straight dope? Is there a proper pronounciation, in english?

Oh, and just listening to an interview on CNN, an “expert” used yet another variance, something like “cot tar”.

The word in Arabic is Qaf TA Ra. The “T” is an emphatic.

The proper pronunciation in Arabic is roughly Qa Tar. Equivalent of "K The Bedouine dialects however change the Qaf to a G sound, a “Gaf” if you will. So it comes out Gatar, which I suppose sounds like Gutter to English speakers.

Doesn’t to me, and the pronunciation, particularly prevalent among Texas oilmen, irritates the hell out of me, to the point where I have been known to correct it.

Pointlessly as Texas oilmen are not subject to correction.

True of so many people.

To elaborate, the dialectal pron sounds like gutar or gatar, short.

Texas oilmen tend to say “guuu tir.” As in “Ah’m g’in to guuutir next weeeek.” The ressemblence is a best vague, and it irritates me for its laziness.

But I may be slightly on the irritable side by nature.

Most of us in the oil industry have it sounding like “gutter”, as in where we need to get our minds out of.

'kä-t&r

is still an approximation. Arabic has a k that sounds like a k, and they have another letter that is usually transliterated as Q. It is pronounced similar to k, but farther back in the throat. The closest thing in English is like the C in calm.

The first vowel sound is rather neutral which is why it sounds like different things to different English speakers. It is sort of halfway between the sounds you mention

& as a and u in abut
ä as o in mop

The t is fairly emphatic (much more so than the way we glide past the double T in cutter) and the r is rolled, without a lot of emphasis on the vowel sound in between. (In much written Arabic they don’t even write the vowels. In more formal Arabic the vowels are not written as separate letters, as in English, but more like ornate accent marks.)

Even those in the broadcast news business do not try to pronounce foreign words exactly correctly, because they would sound so strange to English/American ears if they did. Languages like Arabic have sounds that just don’t exist in English and we can’t really pick them up. A more common example is Iraq, which is never pronounced properly in the US. (It does not end in a K sound but rather a glottal stop. Although English speakers can be easily taught a glottal stop and it appears in speech [like the way you put a break between the words “three ears”], it is not actually part of the English language.)

I’ve heard people on the fox news channel say ‘gutter’. It confused the hell out of me because I had no idea where the hell ‘gutter’ was.

The Voice of America Pronunciation Guide pronounces it “KAH-trr.” One feature that I like about the VOA guide is that it has an audio file that you can play to actually hear the word pronounced.

To illustrate, http://islam.org/mosque/arabicscript/1/1.htm, the Fatiha, the opening of the Quran with both translation and recitation.

Normally one does not write with the vowels, except to clarify obscure or ambig. usage. In religious contexts, however, it is common to write with voweling.

Your comments are obscure to me.

Iraq is written in Arabic 'ain ra aleph qaf. Standard pronunciation is 'iraaq. Dialectal varients include 'iraag (bedou dialect influence shift of qaf to gaf) and 'iraa` which is the non-qaf qaf found in urban Egyptian and some Leb dialects.

Irak, a common pron as Ee rak, is actually not far off of the proper 'iraaq, except of course lacking the 'ain and the proper qaf.

To illustrate, http://islam.org/mosque/arabicscript/1/1.htm, the Fatiha, the opening of the Quran with both translation and recitation.

Normally one does not write with the vowels, except to clarify obscure or ambig. usage. In religious contexts, however, it is common to write with voweling.

Your comments are obscure to me.

Iraq is written in Arabic 'ain ra aleph qaf. Standard pronunciation is 'iraaq. Dialectal varients include 'iraag (bedou dialect influence shift of qaf to gaf) and 'iraa` which is the non-qaf qaf found in urban Egyptian and some Leb dialects.

Irak, a common pron as Ee rak, is actually not far off of the proper 'iraaq, except of course lacking the 'ain and the proper qaf.

[hope this is not a second submission, it occured to me to note that in Arabic Iraq is al-'iraaq, more properly.)