Why Do Osama and Usama Have Different Spellings?

[DR13]

Is it Osama or Usama? The FBI Most Wanted List has Usama but CNN says Osama. Personally, I have always used Osama. Opinions?

 

[KingNothing]

It's both.

 

[DaveC426913]

Neither. It's dead.

 

[DR13]

neither. It's dead.

haha!

 

[AlephZero]

The pronunciation of languages like Arabic and Urdu has large regional variations. Iin fact "standard Arabic" is the second language of many native Arabic speakers, not their first language.

Vowel sounds are quite variable - for example if you look at historical Western writings over the last two or three centuries, you will see variations like Mohammad, Muhammed, Mahomet, and even Mahmood and Mahmud. There is no reason to suppose that the writers were not making their best attempt at writing down what they heard.

A "scholarly" transliteration of the scripts into the Roman alphabet can be confusing for non-specialist English speakers. The sounds of the basic vowels are a better match with modern Italian than English.

Today I heard some New Yorker talking about "Bin Layden" in a news report on Obama's visit. Clearly that is a plausible English pronunciation of "Laden", but it couldn't possibly be Arabic - or Italian.

You could equally argue for Oosama, or even Uwsama.

 

[Jack21222]

The pronunciation of languages like Arabic and Urdu has large regional variations. Iin fact "standard Arabic" is the second language of many native Arabic speakers, not their first language.

Vowel sounds are quite variable - for example if you look at historical Western writings over the last two or three centuries, you will see variations like Mohammad, Muhammed, Mahomet, and even Mahmood and Mahmud. There is no reason to suppose that the writers were not making their best attempt at writing down what they heard.

A "scholarly" transliteration of the scripts into the Roman alphabet can be confusing for non-specialist English speakers. The sounds of the basic vowels are a better match with modern Italian than English.

Today I heard some New Yorker talking about "Bin Layden" in a news report on Obama's visit. Clearly that is a plausible English pronunciation of "Laden", but it couldn't possibly be Arabic - or Italian.

You could equally argue for Oosama, or even Uwsama.

I've never seen a transliteration scheme that would allow Uwsama.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Arabic for some examples. I believe the و is the one to look at.

 

[pergradus]

Usama avoids some possible confusion with Obama.

 

[flyingpig]

Neither. It's dead.

This.


Seriously, the guy is getting more attention after death than being alive.

 

[AlephZero]

I've never seen a transliteration scheme that would allow Uwsama.

Neither have I, but it would be less confusing to a casual reader than Wsama (which is arguably the most literal "letter-for letter" verison)

 

[Antiphon]

Usama avoids some possible confusion with Obama.

But it's easily confused with Ubama.

 

[lisab]

But it's easily confused with Ubama.

 

[FtlIsAwesome]

And don't forget Bama jelly.

 

[Geezer]

The pronunciation of languages like Arabic and Urdu has large regional variations. Iin fact "standard Arabic" is the second language of many native Arabic speakers, not their first language.

Vowel sounds are quite variable - for example if you look at historical Western writings over the last two or three centuries, you will see variations like Mohammad, Muhammed, Mahomet, and even Mahmood and Mahmud. There is no reason to suppose that the writers were not making their best attempt at writing down what they heard.

A "scholarly" transliteration of the scripts into the Roman alphabet can be confusing for non-specialist English speakers. The sounds of the basic vowels are a better match with modern Italian than English.

Today I heard some New Yorker talking about "Bin Layden" in a news report on Obama's visit. Clearly that is a plausible English pronunciation of "Laden", but it couldn't possibly be Arabic - or Italian.

You could equally argue for Oosama, or even Uwsama.

Arabic is closely related to Hebrew, and they share this same transliteration issue, too. That's why you see both "Chanukah" and "Hanukkah" (plus a few other variations). In English, there isn't a letter that represents that sound that sits between "k" and "h" so people have to do their best to approximate it.