Sampo Syreeni wrote:
> On Wed, 3 Oct 2001, Marco Cimarosti wrote:
>
> > Alef Fatha Lam Sukun Qaf Fatha Alef Ain Kasra Dal Fatha
> Teh-Marbuta
> >(Damma)
>
> It strikes me as weird that none of the major news media have
> gone to the pain of finding out how the buzzwords of the day
> (al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden) are actually written in Arabic,
> properly transliterated or even pronounced. [...]
Transliteration is not the worse thing I notice in media these days. I
would not care that they use the weirdest spellings, if they just stopped
spreading misinformation that, directly or indirectly, pushes the idea that
Arabs and Muslims are the same thing and they are all terrorists.
A member of the Italian parliament recently said on TV that "they all speak
the same language from Morocco to Indonesia". This guy who said such a
linguistic blasphemy is one of the main politicians in the opposition front,
an university professor, and one that I always considered a "progressist
intellectual" -- so you can imagine what kind of declarations are coming
from the fascist ministers in the Italian government!
However, about the name of the Great Bastard, I have seen it often written
on the headings of pictures taken from Arabic TV's:
أسامة بن لادن
Alef-Hamza-Above Seen Alef Meem Teh-Marbuta Space Beh Noon Space Lam
Alef Dal Noon
0623 0633 0627 0645 0629 0020 0628 0646 0020 0644 0627 062F 0646
I guess that, vowelized, it should be:
أُسامة بِن لادِن
Alef-Hamza-Above Damma Seen Alef Meem Teh-Marbuta Space Beh Kasra
Noon Space Lam Alef Dal Kasra Noon
0628 064F 0650 0646 0020 0644 0627 062F 0650 0646
And a possible transliteration is 'Usâma(t) Bin Lâdin.
But Kasra is also often transliterated "e", and Damma "o", so I guess that
"'Osama" and "Ben Lâden" are equally correct. What I don't understand is
the inconsistent spelling "Bin Laden" which is so commonly used.
Ciao.
Marco
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