Pronunciation of bin Laden's org in the media

[Peter A. McGraw]

Surely the vowels of the [ael keida] pronunciation are most simply
explained as an interpretation of the transliteration al Qaida according to
the normal AE spelling convention (as in aid, maid, etc.).

Peter Mc.

--On Thursday, February 27, 2003 11:24 AM -0800 "A. Maberry"
<maberry at U.WASHINGTON.EDU> wrote:

> In Arabic it is (romanized) al-Q[macron]a'idah, where ' is, as Wright's
> Grammar puts it "[ayin] the Heb. [ayn], is a strong (but to [most]
> Europeans, as well as Turks and Persians, unpronounceable) guttural ...
> It is described as produced by a smart compression of the upper part of
> the windpipe and forcible emission of the breath. It is wrong to treat it,
> in any of the Semitic languages, as a mere vowel letter ..."
> The "q" is a "strongly articulated gutteral 'k'"
>
> So, al-KA'ida is probably closest to Arabic, al-KAIda next closest. I've
> seen the name of the organization represented as Al-Qaeda which might give
> rise to the incorrect pronunciation al-KEIda.
>
> allen
> maberry at u.washington.edu
>
> On Thu, 27 Feb 2003, Lesa Dill wrote:
>
>> I figured it was a triphthong.  Since English doesn't have them (??maybe)
>> anymore, some level it to the diphthong [ai] and others to the
>> monophthong [e].  Anybody know Arabic?
>>
>> Dave wrote:
>>
>> > I wonder if anyone has wondered at the near 50/50 split
>> > that I've noticed in the media re: the pronunciation of
>> > Osama bin Laden's organization.  Some people say "alkaida"
>> > and some "alkeida" (roughly phonetic notation).  I've seen,
>> > of course, broadcasters "mispronounce" foreign names before,
>> > but this is the first time I've seen a case where it seems
>> > almost a coin-toss how a given announcer/politician/etc
>> > will say it.  I believe I recall a case where ABC's George
>> > Stefanopoulos said it both ways within the space of a
>> > couple minutes.
>> >
>> > I wonder whether there may be a pragmatic dimension to some
>> > of these cases: that is, some of these people may think (as I
>> > do) that "alkaida" is closer to the true Arabic pronunciation,
>> > but may be deliberately pronouncing it the other way in
>> > order to show a kind of passive contempt for them.
>> >
>> > Anyone else have thoughts on this?
>> >
>> > Dave
>>



****************************************************************************
                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu