How Do You Pronounce Qatar? Probably Incorrectly.

In the end the second will arrive for everybody, or a minimum of everybody who doesn’t communicate Arabic however hopes to debate this year’s World Cup with out sounding like a complete fool.

What occurs when conversational circumstance forces us to utter the phrase “Qatar” in public?

Is it Kuh-TAR, like guitar? Or Kuh-TAH, just like the British pronunciation of catarrh, a phlegmy sore throat? What in regards to the enterprise executives who bang on about how you’re 100% fallacious and needs to be saying KUH-ter, like cutter (or gutter), or one thing that extra approximates KAT-ar?

Why does everybody on TV appear to have a distinct reply? Can we belief random tutorial YouTube movies? Is there a solution to say it with out including “or nonetheless you pronounce it”? Why hasn’t FIFA issued a proper directive? It has been 12 years, in any case, since soccer’s governing physique began all this by awarding the game’s greatest championship to a tiny Gulf nation.

However whereas a four-page phonetic information created for journalists touring to Qatar does provide a level of linguistic aid — providing step-by-step pronunciations of useful phrases like “Assist!” and “I used to be robbed” — it’s silent on the identify of the place the place you would possibly must say them.

Allow us to stipulate right here that the issue isn’t willful ignorance or cultural vanity, however that the Arabic pronunciation of “Qatar” — قطر in Arabic script — may be very totally different from the English one:

In case you’re an English speaker, you’re in all probability saying it incorrectly, however solely within the sense that your pronunciation of “Paris” or “Chile” could be thought of fallacious from the standpoint of a Parisian or a Chilean.

Which implies that the actual query is: What kind of fallacious is true?

“There’s no actual steerage,” stated Neil Buethe, the chief communications officer for america Soccer Federation, whose workforce has slowly trickled in to the nation with the identify the gamers want they might pronounce. “It’s positively been a debate.”

Sure, it has. On-line, a Qatari referred to as Mr. Q has posted a collection of movies for guests, together with one that begins, “I’ve gone forward and observed that plenty of foreigners are educating foreigners methods to pronounce Qatar.” He then exhibits a number of clips of individuals saying “Qatar” in varied painful methods on American TV and provides: “I respect you, you respect me, we’re all respecting one another proper now — however no.”

Hassan Al Thawadi, the top of the Supreme Committee directing the World Cup preparations, stated in an interview that pronunciations of “Qatar” fluctuate even contained in the host nation.

This has not helped alleviate the overall confusion amongst guests.

“Folks had been saying ‘KUH-ter’ once we acquired there for the primary time final December,” Buethe stated of his journeys to the nation upfront of the World Cup. “However we had many conversations with people and with folks within the federation, they usually informed us it wasn’t right: Don’t say, ‘KUH-ter.’”

Jenny Taft, a sideline reporter for Fox Sports activities, which will broadcast the World Cup in america, stated the community had made a command choice.

“I don’t know who made the decision, however we’re going with Ka-TAR,” she stated in an interview. “I’m undecided why, however that was the choice made. And it’s distinctive, proper? Like, I in all probability was saying KUH-ter main as much as this. However Ka-TAR is, I suppose, in all probability the extra recognizable method the nation is pronounced.”

Walker Zimmerman, a defender for the U.S. workforce, stated that was what he deliberate to do, too. “I say Ka-TAR,” Zimmerman stated in an interview within the fall. “I do know it’s in all probability not the right method — KUH-ter is for many who in all probability know what they’re speaking about a bit of bit extra — however I’m going with Ka-TAR.”

The German tv community ZDF has taken a distinct strategy: Its workers had been knowledgeable by way of e-mail that they had been to go along with KAT-ar. Martin Tyler, the legendary Sky Sports activities broadcaster who’s working his twelfth World Cup this yr, stated he would do the identical.

None of those idiosyncratic selections resolves the principle questions, nonetheless: What’s the precise pronunciation of the phrase? And what’s our drawback?

To start with, stated Sarab Al Ani, who teaches Arabic at Yale College, the primary consonant within the phrase Qatar doesn’t actually translate right into a Okay or a Q sound. It’s really a glottal sound, which means it emanates from the glottis, at the back of the throat — a muscle English audio system don’t get to train a lot.

“What’s occurring is that the very again of your tongue is flippantly and shortly touching the roof of your mouth, creating the preliminary sound,” Al Ani stated.

She advised flattening your tongue and tilting your head barely ahead, to shorten the gap between tongue and throat. “It makes the gap as shut as doable,” she defined. “It’s important to push your tongue again a bit of bit to create the contact with the roof of your mouth — only a light contact, one second — after which make the sound.”

The phrase Qatar has its emphasis on the primary syllable, she stated. Following that, the T is fast and explosive — “a darkish T,” she known as it, barely hole. To make the right sound, it helps to un-flatten your tongue by curving it down barely. The A is pronounced quickly, and the R, Al Ani stated, is “nearer in pronunciation to a Spanish R.”

She proceeded to exhibit a few instances, after which stated, encouragingly, that English audio system, even World Cup reporters, would possibly want plenty of observe earlier than getting it proper.

Now that we’ve cleared that up, kind of, what are we meant to do with our newly engaged glottis, and our newfound data?

The writer Mary Norris, an knowledgeable in correct utilization who’s a former copy editor at The New Yorker, stated that overseas place names could be tiny little pronunciation minefields. Use the American pronunciation and also you may appear intentionally ignorant; use the native one and also you danger sounding aggressively pretentious.

She talked about the Kabul conundrum — Ka-BOOL? Or COB-ble? — and admitted that she has no unbiased details about the pronunciation of “Qatar.” “I’m certain that in American English we’re not anticipated to give you an Arabic pronunciation,” Norris stated.

She did say she had as soon as heard her physician consult with a rustic he known as “cotter” on the telephone. “I believe he was saying ‘cutter,’” she stated, “however in a Brooklyn accent.”

If all of that is simply including to your anxious confusion, please take coronary heart from the soothing message imparted by an official on the Consulate Common of the State of Qatar in New York. The official, who requested that her identify not be used as a result of she shouldn’t be supposed to talk to the information media, stated that each day she has to take heed to English audio system mangling the nation’s identify in a wide range of baroquely inaccurate methods.

However when you’re going with Ka-TAR, you’re high quality, she stated. (“Cutter” is much less high quality.) “It’s not your fault,” she went on. “Some letters in Arabic you don’t have in English, so you can not pronounce it the identical method we do. We all know you’re doing the most effective you possibly can.”