When I come home from campus, the first thing I usually do is turn on CNN to watch the day's news while I decide whether I am going to make a real meal or a frozen pizza. I usually get home just in time to catch the second half of "Lou Dobbs Tonight," which airs at 5 p.m. Every time a story about Iraq or the Middle East comes on, I make sure to pay attention, as the region is an interest to me, both personally and academically. Most stories about Iraq include the name of the prime minister of Iraq, and Lou Dobbs always pronounces it "Noori al-Maliiki."
To someone who speaks Arabic well, Dobbs' pronunciation is like fingernails on a chalkboard.
The proper pronunciation of the prime minister's name is "Noori al-Maaliki," with a stressed long A. Mr. Dobbs puts the stress and the vowel length on the wrong syllable and actually changes the meaning of al-Maaliki's last name.
This is a common error Americans make with many non-European names due to the fact that languages like Arabic, Persian Farsi and Hindi are not written in the Latin alphabet and have sounds that sound nothing like American English. Trying to explain how to make the first sound in Ayman al-Zawahiri's last name, the second in command of al-Qaeda, or the "ae" cluster in "Qaeda" itself, is trying and frustrating for all involved. (Personally, it took me more than a year to be able to make an attempt at these sounds.)
There are sources online, however, for those in the media to have an adequate approximation of how to articulate the names of those in the news. Voice of America, a federally sponsored news agency to produce "reliable" news for closed societies since 1942, created a pronunciation guide online in 2000 so that its newscasters can keep up with the proper pronunciations of world leaders, new cultural icons and other newsmakers. Its database, created from thousands of index cards by Voice of America announcer Jim Tedder, contains more than 5,000 names and is updated daily. While no one can learn every language and dialect, this database can help reporters and news anchors pronounce names with seemingly unpronounceable consonant clusters, tones incomprehensible to American ears or umlauts over every other vowel.
When I was in Iraq, I made an effort to help soldiers who had no concept of Arabic to say town and officials' names properly. Before going into an-Najaf, one of two holy Shiite cities in southern Iraq, I had to interrupt the debate of a group of officers as to whether the name of the city is pronounced "al-Naajaf," "al-Najaaf" or, as the late Peter Jennings said on ABC's "World News Tonight," "al-Naajaaf." Actually, none of these is the correct pronunciation of "an-Najaf," which has all short vowels.
While being able to say "Mosul" and not "Mozuul" may not be absolutely critical, being able to articulate a name correctly shows that you are care enough to attempt to learn someone else's language. When my last name is pronounced with two syllables, the hair on the back of my neck stands on end: I am not a "carnie" running carnival rides. In the same way, something as simple as making a concerted effort to say someone's name properly shows that you are trying to bridge the language and cultural gap. This is especially important in areas of the world where both the language and daily life are so different from the United States.
In the same way, newscasters' butchering of the names of Iran's Mahmood Ahmedinejad, Turkmenistan's new president, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, or Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, demonstrates a complete lack of sensitivity to those on whom they are reporting. After I hear a mispronunciation on the news, I begin to question the news story itself: If announcers or reporters cannot take the time to get the proper pronunciations, did they look into the cultural context of the story? If they do not understand the culture, were they taken advantage of in an interview or did they insert their personal ideology into the story to make up for lack of cultural insight?
When I meet people on campus from a country or group with which I am not familiar, I take some time to learn something about their lives, such as their culture, a phrase or two and how to say their name properly. It puts a smile on their face and shows them that not every American is ignorant about what happens across the ocean or south of the border. When media personalities botch name after name, they perpetuate the stereotype of the arrogant, ignorant American and bring the rest of their reporting into question.
Jeff Carnes ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in linguistics.
