/I/raq, /aI/raq, /a/raq and /schwa/raq

[A. Maberry]

On Thu, 20 Mar 2003, Billionbridges.com wrote:

> 3. If Arabia begins with an a in English, why not Iraq? Or am I
> way off base here, mishearing an equivalence in the first vowels
> of the two words as pronounced by Iraqis and other people from
> the Middle East?

Both 'Arab and 'Iraq begin with the Arabic consonant 'ayn and is a strong
guttural that is very difficult for non-native speakers (it gets left out
in some Arabic dialects too, I think). As a result, it is often not
pronounced but the vowel that follows it is. The vowel following the 'ayn
in 'Arab is "a" (fatah) and following the 'ayn in 'Iraq is "i" (kasra).
The same is true for Hebrew, e.g., 'ets "tree" 'al (on). Both words begin
with the unpronounced consonant 'ayin. Also, in Arabic the name of the
country is al-'Iraq (w/definite article) not 'Iraq. I don't know if that
would cause a mishearing of the initial vowel in 'Iraq though.

allen
maberry at u.washington.edu