James Tauber's Blog 2005/11/04
Why the Q in IRAQ?
Hans Nowak asks:
Why is "Iraq" spelled with a q?
Iraq in Arabic is العراق
The final letter (Arabic is written right-to-left) is ق (qāf) which is a uvular plosive. A uvular plosive is produced like a velar plosive (English 'k') but with the back of the tongue touching the roof of the mouth further back.
Arabic also has a velar plosive ﻙ (kāf).
'k' is a common transcription for velar plosives and 'q' is a common transcription for uvular plosives.
So Iraq is spelled with a 'q' because the final consonant is a uvular plosive and not a velar plosive (even though English speakers pronounce it as if it were a velar plosive). Irak would be a different word in Arabic.
by jtauber : Created on Nov. 3, 2005 : Last modified Nov. 3, 2005 : Categories linguistics : 2 comments (permalink)