Pronunciation of bin Laden's org in the media

[Peter A. McGraw]

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.

Peter Mc.

--On Thursday, February 27, 2003 10:36 AM -0800 Anne Gilbert
<avgilbert at PRODIGY.NET> wrote:

> Dave:
>
>>
>> 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.
>
> There are similar mispronunciations(and I think they *are* deliberate) by
> certain news personalities, of the name of the Iraqi leader (SODom Hussein
> v. the "closer to Arabic "sadDAM")
> Anne G



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