Arabian supplement : hard-to-pronounce names?

How should I convey Arabic names?

  • Direct Transliteration - most accurate, but potentially the hardest on the reader

    Votes: 22 43.1%

  • Include an English translation/equivalent of the word in parenthesis

    Votes: 23 45.1%

  • Include phonetic pronunciation guides in parenthesis

    Votes: 14 27.5%

  • Include phonetic pronunciation guides in a glossary/index/appendix

    Votes: 21 41.2%

  • Use only the English forms of the words, but use Arabic if no English form exists

    Votes: 3 5.9%

  • Use only the English forms of the words; make up a simplified form of the word if none exists.

    Votes: 1 2.0%

  • When creating NPCs, give them basically realistic names

    Votes: 15 29.4%

  • When creating NPC, give them names which are as simple as possible

    Votes: 7 13.7%

  • Just call them all Bruce.

    Votes: 3 5.9%

  • Other (Please Comment Below)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
Maerdwyn

Maerdwyn

First Post
Hi everyone - I'd appreciate your input on a supplement I'm working on. It's a historically-themed product for Earth 1066 that deals with some of the Muslim states of the time.

The question I'm having is how to handle names (PC, NPC, place, items, etc.) for the vast majority of gamers who, and I'll make an assumption here, aren't Arabic speakers.

What level of simplification of Arabic terms and terms would you prefer if you were to use such a supplement?

Any insights and comments would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Ian

To give you an idea of the different options
Direct Transliteration - most accurate, but potentially the hardest on the reader

"Gawhar al-Siqili" is a direct transliteration
"Gohar the Sicilian" would be the English simplification and translation

A realistic name for a resident of al-Qahira (Cairo) might be Yusuf ibn al-Khadrisi, Mu'awiya abu al-Aziz, or Khayriyya Umm Zuwayla

Simple names would include a lot of Ali, Mahmud, Leila, Omar, and other more common Arabic names which are somewhat easier to say.
 
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As a linguistics major and a lingophile, I would prefer that the IPA (International Phonetics Alphabet) was used in an appendix. Although not everyone knows the IPA, it's the most accurate way to show proper pronounciation. I know I'm probably in the minority, but I would like "realistic" sounding names, even if they are hard for us English speakers to pronounce.
 


As a person whose name is considered 'difficult' for english speakers to pronounce I can tell you that I would be offended if the bastardised (opps anglicized) form of my name was given in preference to the 'correct form'

That being said however I would give people a pronounciation guide in an appendix.

Its not entirely hard to learn to correctly pronounce a name as long as you put in a little effort...
 

What convention of transliteration would you be using? There's lots of conventions out there, and you can pick one that's relatively easier on the eyes. Just eliminating diacritics makes most transliterations easier, for instance.

That said, I don't think the transliterations you gave as examples are particularly hard. Then again, I'm a bit of an amateur linguist and lingophile myself! :) And I'd like IPA too, but it probably isn't really a good idea, just something I'd like.

Rather, what you probably should do, is just make sure that whatever transliteration guide you use also has a pronunciation guide attached. Lots of folks don't know what to do with transliterated Arabic 'q' for instance.
 

Arabic names aren't that hard to learn. Players are adaptable. If you pronounce the names properly for them regularly they'll learn to pronounce them properly themselves.

Tzarevitch
 

direct transliteration is, of course, the most preferable.

i could see using "anglicized" forms for names that are relatively well-known to English speakers (your Cairo - al-Qahira example.) though a perhaps better strategy would be to primarily use the direct transliteration, and parenthetically give the anglicized version the first time it is used.

so:

Al-Qahira (Cairo) is the largest city in Egypt...

...al-Qahira this or that... etc.

i assume you want to play up the exoticness of the setting. having exotic names would go a long way to doing that. keep 'em in.
 

I think most of the people who'd use this sort of thing would expect authentic names (as these are a big and frequently occuring part of the 'flavour' of the setting) and would feel let down to find them missing, so by all means keep them.

However, I would argue that a phonetic guide needs to accompany such names in brackets to assist the Gm who needs to know how to pronounce Khayriyya Umm Zuwayla (or whatever) mid-game without dragging the game to a halt in order to consult an appendix.

Yours,
Altin
 

Tonguez said:
As a person whose name is considered 'difficult' for english speakers to pronounce
Click to expand...

I can honestly say I've never had that problem.


Hong "the hardest bit is remembering the silent K" Ooi
 

Thanks for the responses everyone - keep them coming, as it's very helpful.

I have a pretty simple transliteration system for Arabic that I've been using for quite a while that incorporates only a few non-standard keyboard characters.

I've also developed a document that teaches the Arabic alphabet and how to pronounce and transliterate it. If it doesn't make the book itself, it will at least be on line. My players always enjoyed learning how to write their characters' names in Arabic, so I figure some other people might want to do it too. :)

Ian
 

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