"gogu" wrote in message
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Ο "James Higby" heezerbumfrool[at]hotmail[dot]com έγραψε στο μήνυμα
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"Mike Marotta" wrote in message
oups.com...
(But can you PRONOUNCE it?? Szernecses would be transliterated into
American as Sair-nech-esh or perhaps serneh-chesh... Reminding me of
the GREEN ACRES where Lisa goes to college and the professor writes
PSYCHE on the blackboard and Lisa says "p-shee-shee"...)
Szervusz,
Marotta Mihaly
Michael, are you knowledgeable regarding the topic of transliteration?
If
so, I have a question that no one has ever been able to answer. It could
even be construed as applicable to coins.
I could help you James if it has something to do with Hungarian or with
linguistics in general, though in a limited degree...
Even if I can't help you I have a good friend who is quite knowledgeable
in
the sector.
OK, I'll start with a simple one.When I was in high school I learned that
the Islamic holy book was the KORAN, spelled thus. I knew it wasn't really
spelled that way, as it is an Arabic word, written in Arabic, but spelled
phonetically with the Western alphabet for those of us who do not read
Arabic.
But now all of a sudden the transliteration has become QU'RAN. In my view,
this is not nearly as straightforward as KORAN. Why the QU instead of the
simpler and unambiguous K? And what's the deal with the apostrophe?
So as to go back on the topic of coins, why are some unit coins of Arabic
countries called RIALS while others are called RIYALS? Seems to me those
two spellings represent identical sounds.
James
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