Arabic-L:LING:El- Al- Variation responses

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Fri 03 Oct  2003
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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-------------------------Directory------------------------------------

1) Subject:El- Al- Variation response
2) Subject:El- Al- Variation response
3) Subject:El- Al- Variation response
4) Subject:El- Al- Variation response
5) Subject:El- Al- Variation response

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1)
Date: 03 Oct  2003
From: Marilyn Booth <mbooth at uiuc.edu>
Subject:El- Al- Variation response

This is one of the most stunning personal examples I've seen yet of how
willed ignorance on the part of the US administration affects  
individuals!
Wouldn't it be possible to get expert testimony from a linguist or two,  
if
there isn't a book that explains this?

in solidarity,

Marilyn Booth, DPhil
Visiting Associate Professor
Program in Comparative and World Literature
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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2)
Date: 03 Oct  2003
From: Sanaa Ghanem <sanaa at arabacademy.com>
Subject:El- Al- Variation response

Dear Dr. Maher Awad
I can send you a signed and stamped letter from Arab Academy stating  
that
that Al is the same as El.  Al is fusha (standard Arabic) and El is
colloquial Arabic.
Best regards,
Sanaa Ghanem
President
www.arabacademy.com

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3)
Date: 03 Oct  2003
From: "Schub, Michael" <Michael.Schub at trincoll.edu>
Subject:El- Al- Variation response

The definite article in Arabic is  /-l-/.  Alternately one
finds /a/, /e/, /u/, /i/, /'/, etc. preceding it to represent what is  
merely
a HELPING [anaptyctic; epentheric] vowel (to pronounce a consonant  
cluster at the beginning of a sentence); that vowel in not an integral  
part of the language itself.               M. Schub

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4)
Date: 03 Oct  2003
From: Tom Emerson <tree at basistech.com>
Subject:El- Al- Variation response

> "I was wondering if you knew of any book or translation
> guide that explains the Al- in Arabic is the same as El-
> when translated into English.  The CIS (formerly INS) is
> trying to deny a visa for a client of mine because her
> passport says her last name is Al-... and her translation of
> her birth certificate says El-... .  I would greatly
> appreciate any help!"

This is amazing to me: that one branch of the Federal Government would
be looking to deny someone based on a variation of _transliteration_
while other branches of the same Government are doing all they can to
unify the same differences.

The CIS claim is specious and ignorant.

It may be worth having the client write her name neatly in Arabic
script: there is only one way to write the name, but multitudinous
ways to transliterate it. At least within the Defense/Intelligence
community (which I'm most familiar with) each agency has their own
transliteration standard(s).

I could not find any books discussing this, but the following article
presents a nice summary of the issues:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/ 
0,7792,730805,00.html

Undoubtedly I can find more references, including some from the USG,
if you are interested.
     -tree
-- 
Tom Emerson                                          Basis Technology  
Corp.
Software Architect                                  
http://www.basistech.com

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5)
Date: 03 Oct  2003
From: sattar izwaini <sattarumist at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject:El- Al- Variation response

The Al- or El- is basically the definite article attached to a name, in  
this case the surname. One problem with transliterating Arabic names is  
the realization of vowels. This depends much on the way one pronounces  
the name. The majority of Arab names with the definite article tend to  
have theAL, though there are names with EL. The name of your client was  
written by two different public servants and thus it has two slightly  
different versions.

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End of Arabic-L:  03 Oct  2003