Qaeda~Qaida~Quida

[Benjamin Fortson]

The q is a uvular stop, not a velar, and the "ayin" is not a glottal stop
(which is found in English--alif in Arabic) but a voiced pharyngeal
fricative. The "silent but present" h is an h written at the end of the
word in Arabic but not pronounced; it sometimes shows up in Roman
transliterations of other words, sometimes not.

Ben Fortson

On Tue, 22 Jan 2002, A. Maberry wrote:

> That would be my guess. I've seen al-Qaida and al-Qaeda but not Quida.
> They are all trying to represent q [velar]-a [as in "father" but longer in
> duration]-"ayin" [glottal stop not found in English]- i [short as in "it"
> but sometimes heard as "e" or schwa- d- a [as in "father" but short-
> final -h is silent but present.
>
> The above is probably as clear as mud, as the saying goes.
>
> I heard someone pronounce it correctly last week on NPR but can't remember
> who it was.
>
> allen
> maberry at u.washington.edu
>
> On Sun, 20 Jan 2002, Barnhart wrote:
>
> > These variants are listed in the order in which I found them.  This
> > seems to reflect preference in usage.  _Quida_ is noticeably less
> > frequent and appears to reflect the customary orthographic traditions
> > concerning "q" and "u" in English.  Is there a contrast in tradition of
> > transliteration which accounts for "ae" as opposed to "ai"?
> >
> > Regards,
> > David
> >
> > barnhart at highlands.com
> >
>