Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!
Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!
-
Congratulations strongm on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!
Bin Laden or bin Laden/Usama or Osama
- Thread starter RGarcia87
- Start date
AnotherHiggins
Technical User
I'm pretty sure he doesn't speak english.
Osama/Usama doesn't spell his name with these characters, so journalists are left to spell it phonetically.
Why don't you track him down and ask him?![[thumbsup2]](/data/assets/smilies/thumbsup2.gif "[thumbsup2] [thumbsup2]")
John
Every generalization is false, including this one.
Osama/Usama doesn't spell his name with these characters, so journalists are left to spell it phonetically.
Why don't you track him down and ask him?
John
Every generalization is false, including this one.
What about Gadaffi/Gaddafi/Gathafi/Kadafi/Kaddafi/Khadafy/Qadhafi/Qathafi/...?
The closest transliteration/romanization of that name would be "Usama ibn Ladin".
Read more here:
The closest transliteration/romanization of that name would be "Usama ibn Ladin".
Read more here:
entaroadun
Programmer
This raises an interesting question: in the absence of a central authority, who gets to determine the "proper" romanization of a language?
The People's Republic of China published romanization guidelines for Chinese (which Taiwan disputes). Is there a similar body for Arabic? Given that there is so much local variation in both vocabulary and pronunciation, who is qualified?
Any Arabic speakers available to shed some light?
The People's Republic of China published romanization guidelines for Chinese (which Taiwan disputes). Is there a similar body for Arabic? Given that there is so much local variation in both vocabulary and pronunciation, who is qualified?
Any Arabic speakers available to shed some light?
sleipnir214
Programmer
The classical Arabic ibn, the Persian Gulf colloquial Arabic bin and the Hebrew ben are all equivalent to the Irish O' or the Scottish Mac, meaning "son of".
I believe bin, ibn and ben, like the German von or the Dutch van, should never be capitalized. However, I've never seen a canonical source on this. Generally, though, romanized versions of Jewish patrilinear names are always spelled with a lower-case ben.
Want the best answers? Ask the best questions!
TANSTAAFL!!
I believe bin, ibn and ben, like the German von or the Dutch van, should never be capitalized. However, I've never seen a canonical source on this. Generally, though, romanized versions of Jewish patrilinear names are always spelled with a lower-case ben.
Want the best answers? Ask the best questions!
TANSTAAFL!!
Stella740pl
Programmer
On the other hand, nor Hebrew neither Arabic have native capitalization. So it's just roman rules/judgement were applied to the capitalization of romanized versions.
That's a very funny article, flapeyre.
As a side note, my country of origin (DR Congo), has spelling problems of its own.
As the country was colonized, evangelized, exploited by both catholics and protestants, the christian bible was also written/translated into native tongues by both those two major christian sects. The catholics were mainly Belgian and French, while the protestants were Americans.
As you can imagine, the two bibles spell the native languages according to who wrote/translated them. The protestants write with a distinct american english spelling, while the catholics favor the French spelling.
As a result, one can tell a person's religion by how they spell their name.
As a side note, my country of origin (DR Congo), has spelling problems of its own.
As the country was colonized, evangelized, exploited by both catholics and protestants, the christian bible was also written/translated into native tongues by both those two major christian sects. The catholics were mainly Belgian and French, while the protestants were Americans.
As you can imagine, the two bibles spell the native languages according to who wrote/translated them. The protestants write with a distinct american english spelling, while the catholics favor the French spelling.
As a result, one can tell a person's religion by how they spell their name.
Actually, it's DR Congo for Democratic Republic of Congo. This is how it happened.
Around 1880, Europe, willy nilly pamby namby, cut up Africa into chunks of real estate recognizable on the map today as african countries. After distributing the land among themselves, a vast heavily forested land, criss-crossed by rivers and lakes, difficult to penetrate, was left, and awarded to the King of Belgium, Leopold. That land was known as Congo Free State.
As a kingly gesture, Leopold presented Congo to Belgians as a gift. Congo suffered unspeakable savagerie and exploitation at the hands of Belgians. Their cruelty was unrivaled anywhere in the world before, or since then. This left deep scars in the psyche of the country to this day. The country was renamed Belgian Congo.
At independence (1960), the name was changed to DR Congo. But soon after, Mobutu - a relic of Belgian colonization, and a product of the Cold War - emulated the colonialists by instituting a brutal and exploitive dictatorship. He renamed the country to Zaire. That name can be found in 15th century Portuguese maps of the region.
After Mobutu's overthrow, the name went back to what it was at independence: DR Congo. A rebirth, a new start, if you will.
So, jwenting, we know what the name is, at all times. It's just that our history can be too complex for people used to quiet lives to comprehend.
Around 1880, Europe, willy nilly pamby namby, cut up Africa into chunks of real estate recognizable on the map today as african countries. After distributing the land among themselves, a vast heavily forested land, criss-crossed by rivers and lakes, difficult to penetrate, was left, and awarded to the King of Belgium, Leopold. That land was known as Congo Free State.
As a kingly gesture, Leopold presented Congo to Belgians as a gift. Congo suffered unspeakable savagerie and exploitation at the hands of Belgians. Their cruelty was unrivaled anywhere in the world before, or since then. This left deep scars in the psyche of the country to this day. The country was renamed Belgian Congo.
At independence (1960), the name was changed to DR Congo. But soon after, Mobutu - a relic of Belgian colonization, and a product of the Cold War - emulated the colonialists by instituting a brutal and exploitive dictatorship. He renamed the country to Zaire. That name can be found in 15th century Portuguese maps of the region.
After Mobutu's overthrow, the name went back to what it was at independence: DR Congo. A rebirth, a new start, if you will.
So, jwenting, we know what the name is, at all times. It's just that our history can be too complex for people used to quiet lives to comprehend.
- Status
Similar threads
- Locked
- Question
- Locked
- News