Re: Vowel variations in Arabic


Harlan Messinger wrote:
> What "standard" Arabic vowel do the "e"s represent in the name of
> Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat? How about the "e"s in Fez, Yemen,

Fez: fa:s (from fa's) in french Fes AFAIK <e> takes a grave accent. N.
African colloquial does have a reputation for its strong 'ima:la
(fronting of /a:/ and /a/)

Yemen : al-yaman

> and Benghazi? Do they reflect the pronunciation used in those locations?
>

the "ben" in Benghazi is not classical . a lebanese encyclopedia vowels
it as banGa:zi:
it is possible that /a/ is highly fronted there, but for example
turkish has /i/ Bingazi

> How about the "o"s in our spelling and pronunciation of Oman and Oran?

Oran is wahra:n (probably arabized from Berber).

Oman is 3uma:n also there is the pronounciation 3umma:n which is older
(more classical), in Turkish Umman

the [o] is due to the influenceof 3ayn, /3/

> How about the one in Jordan? I know that that's a /u/ in Arabic; I

again it's from the Bible, greek `o Iordane:s

arabic uses al-'urdunn

> thought it would be from the Hebrew, but isn't that a patax /a/? And
> while in English we write "Kuwait", why is it "Koweït" in French?

perhaps because <u> represents [u"] in french.,

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