Abu Graib

[Allen D. Maberry]

The Slate article is accurate as to the pronunciation. However Abu Ghraib is a phonetic spelling for the place name which is found in most gazetteers as Abu Ghurayb. The "u" is short and unaccented and so tends to drop out in spoken language.

allen
maberry at u.washington.edu



On Tue, 25 May 2004, Baker, John wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Abu Graib
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>         There's an article on the pronunciation of "Abu Ghraib" at http://slate.msn.com/id/2100290/, which says that the proper pronunciation sounds something like a French person using a rolling "r" to render "grehhb." Apparently it's an Iraqi place name, and non-Iraqi Arabs are likely to mispronounce it.
>
> John Baker
>