"gogu" wrote in message
...
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.

Well, my friend says there is not an explanation to that and it's because
of
the same motive that there is McDonald and MacDonald, McQuinn and McQueen,
gasolene and gasoline, aluminium and aluminum and so on ;-)

I am not talking about issues that go back perhaps millennia, but recent
arbitrary decisions by Americans writing for consumption by Americans and
making things less clear as opposed to more clear.

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?

Again no apparent reason: just the same motive why Peking became Beijing,
Mao Tse-dun became Mao Ze-dong, Teng Hsiao-ping became
Deng Xiao-ping, Bombay became Mumbay, Birmania became
Burma, Rumania became Romania, Cambodja became Campuchea,
Alma Ata became Almaty, Gruzia became Georgia...
I suppose he wants to say there is not a linguistic reason for that.

I always told my students that the change in the Chinese transliterations
was due to increased knowledge of China after the Nixon years. For the
first time many cartographers became aware that their printed geographical
names were lacking in accuracy.

(my note: the apostrophe I believe is for a "dead" "h" between U and R,
something like quHran, the H been almost silent. Probably that way it's
nearer to the real pronunciation as Arabs pronounce it).

That certainly sounds plausible. The problem is, no one has ever given that
explanation before. You're a pioneer, gogu!

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.

Well, here my friends says that it only "seems" because in spoken language
there is a difference between the two:
rial is [ri-al], while riyal is [ri-yal].

That gets into the topic of phonemes, and I doubt that the people at Krause
have any notion of what that's all about, nor do 99.9% of their users.

He also says that there is a more appropriate ng for such questions with
posters who are much more knowledgeable than him (he even used the
expression "geniuses" :-)), that's sci.lang.

Thanks, I'll check that out. And thanks for taking the time to ask your
friend and summarize your conversation here on rcc.

James