Hezbollah Pronunciation

Barnhart barnhart at HIGHLANDS.COM
Thu Jul 27 02:17:15 UTC 2006


I did not keep close tabs on stress as I was driving at the time.
However, on NPR's "Fresh Air" this evening the host consistently said '_ _
, _ while her guest was all over the map.  I heard '_ _ , _ and _'_ _ and
, _ _'_.  The host consistently (I think) use e as in _hesitate_ while the
guest seemed to have used both e and i in the first syllable and schwa or
o as in boat in the second syllable.  The guest also varied between schwa
and a as in father in the last syllable.

Regards,
David

barnhart at highlands.com

American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on Wednesday, July 26,
2006 at 2:27 PM -0500 wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>Subject:      Re: Hezbollah Pronunciation
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>It's a replay of "Muslim" v. "Moslem."
>
>-Wilson
>
>On 7/26/06, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at umr.edu> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: Hezbollah Pronunciation
>>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Alice Faber's reply is very helpful.  Here now (below my signoff) is a =
>> bit more from Google.=20
>>
>> Gerald Cohen=20
>>
>> "...I wonder why the Western media uses the spelling 'Hezbollah'? See =
>> this note from Wikipedia:
>> 1. ^ The name ???? ????? is transliterated from the Arabic in a number =
>> of ways. An exact transliteration would be hizbu' llah. Hezbollah is =
>> predominantly used by American media, such as CNN, Fox News and The New
>=
>> York Times, as well as by the BBC and The Times in the UK, but the =
>> organization itself alternatively transliterates its name as Hizbollah =
>> or Hizbullah. The leading English-language newspaper in the region, the
>=
>> Daily Star of Beirut, transliterates it as Hizbullah, as do the British
>=
>> newspapers The Guardian and The Economist. The Guardian's Sunday sister
>=
>> publication The Observer and British newspapers The Independent and The
>=
>> Daily Telegraph prefer Hizbollah, however, as does the American =
>> Christian Science Monitor. Both Hizbollah and Hezbollah are common =
>> transliterations into other languages with a Latin-based alphabet, such
>=
>> as French, Spanish, Italian and the Nordic languages. It may, however, =
>> also be written as Hizballah or Hisbollah, and the literal Arabic =
>> version Hizb Allah, which is used by Al Jazeera. [Emphasis added]
>"Hizb" =
>> (party) is the Modern Standard Arabic pronunciation, and "Hezb" is =
>> closer to Persian and to Lebanese dialect. The 'h' is pharyngeal in =
>> Arabic, but a normal 'h' sound in Persian. The "-llah" ending, =
>> originally "Allah", means "(the) God". The name is derived from a =
>> Qu'ranic aayat (verse) referring to those who belong to and follow the =
>> "Party of God".
>>
>> =20
>>
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>>
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>
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