Pronunciation of bin Laden's org in the media

[Dennis R. Preston]

How we treat stressed and unstressed foreign vowels (the latter
usually with schwa, which is what happened with the second syllable
of "Helmut") are surely separate questions.

If I wanted to be insulting to somebody named Saddam (at least around
those who had read or heard tales from the Old Testament) I think I
would go for "Sodom" rather than ['saed at m] (lacking information about
any Arabic insult contained in the latter).

dInIs



>On Tue, 4 Mar 2003, Peter A. McGraw wrote:
>
>  > Bush, Sr., used to say ['saed at m].  I assumed it was just the usual American
>>  ignorance of foreign pronunciations until I heard, from a non-authoritative
>>  source, that it was used deliberately to be insulting.  Supposedly there
>>  was an insulting Arabic word with similar sounds.
>
>...which reminds us that Pres. Carter used to address the imperious, if
>diminutive, Helmut Schmidt as "Helmet." Nothing to do with the haircut,
>either.
>
>PR