Mar 2, 2005 10:04
19 yrs ago
1 viewer *
Arabic term
United States
Engineer & Linguist
Native in: English 
, Greek
Works in: Greek to English, English to Greek, French to English, and 5 more.
superscript "c"
Non-PRO
Arabic to English
Other
Other
pronunciation
Hi. I have an English text with many Arabic names in it, and some of them have the superscript "c" at the beggining or the end. For example c_Abdullah, c_Abbasid, c_Isa, Ibn al-Muqaffa_c (where c_ or _c denotes superscript). I don't understand what this superscript means; is it there to show where the word should be stressed?
Proposed translations
(English)
| 5 +1 | 'ain |
Maureen Millington-Brodie
|
| 5 +8 | ع arabic letter |
Version Legal & Patent
|
| 5 | "guttural" ayn |
Nesrin
|
Proposed translations
+1
11 mins
Maureen Millington-Brodie
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Native in English
United Kingdom
33 years of experience
Native in: English
Works in: Arabic to English, German to English
Related KudoZ points
:
12
Arabic term (edited):
superscript
Selected
'ain
It's there I think to denote the Arabic letter 'ain which basically gives you "vowels with attitude", it can be vowelled a,i or u and means you pronounce that vowel emphatically after having stopped the air in your throat (glottal stop) and then tightened your throat whilst actually saying the vowel. In other systems for transcribing Arabic, this letter is marked with an apostrophe before the relevant vowel eg. 'a,'i,'u. Hope this helps.
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Thanks very much. Jean and Nesrin's answers were very helpful too. I'm choosing this one because it gave me a better sense of how this should be pronounced. "
+8
6 mins
Version Legal & Patent
Lebanon
Lebanon
Native in Arabic
Works in field
Lebanon
Legal and Patent translations
Native in: Arabic
Works in: English to Arabic, French to Arabic, Arabic to English, and 1 more.
Arabic term (edited):
superscript
ع arabic letter
i guess it is the substitution to the ع Arabic letter like in the following words: عمل، عبدالله، عقل etc... all the names you mentioned, if written in Arabic will start with the letter ع
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Note added at 8 mins (2005-03-02 10:13:34 GMT)
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as for al muqaffa_c it will end with a ع
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Note added at 8 mins (2005-03-02 10:13:34 GMT)
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as for al muqaffa_c it will end with a ع
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Nesrin
: Didn't see your answer before responding!
5 mins
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thanks Nesrin, better luck next time
|
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| agree |
soamo19
21 mins
|
| agree |
Saleh Ayyub
22 mins
|
| agree |
Mueen Issa
1 hr
|
| agree |
Alaa Zeineldine
1 hr
|
| agree |
Mazyoun
1 hr
|
| agree |
Fuad Yahya
7 hrs
|
| agree |
AhmedAMS
43 days
|
9 mins
Arabic term (edited):
superscript
"guttural" ayn
The superscript "c" is sometimes written to denote the "guttural" sound 'ayn, which comes from the back of the throat (it has nothing to do with the letter "c" or with the stressing of the word). This is the "proper" transliteration of the letter "ayn" (see the transliteration system of the Encyclopedia of Islam), but you will find that it is usually omitted, e.g. the name Abdullah is usually written without any superscript "c" at the beginning.
By the way, most non-Arabic speakers find it very hard to pronounce this letter.
By the way, most non-Arabic speakers find it very hard to pronounce this letter.
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