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Iraq

English translation: Iraq (present use) Irak (after WWI)

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
English term or phrase:Iraq
Selected answer:Iraq (present use) Irak (after WWI)
Entered by: #41698 (LSF)

19:10 Mar 30, 2003
English language (monolingual) [Non-PRO]
English term or phrase: Iraq
Does any one know why sometimes Iraq is spelt with k (Irak) What is the etymology of it?
Lacrimosa
Local time: 04:11
Iraq (present use) Irak (after WWI)
Explanation:
'Irak' was used in English for some time after World War I. Before independence, The colonial power in Iraq was the British and the British had a habit of twisting the pronunciation of place names to fit their mother tongue.

Iraq in other languages:
French - Iraq or Irak.
German - Irak.
Spanish - Irak.
Malay (Malaysia) - Irak.
Indonesian (Indonesia) - Irak.
Slovene (Slovenia) - Irak.

The British being the odd one out?

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Note added at 2003-03-30 20:25:05 (GMT)
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And, if written by the Arabs, it is likely that they would use \'Irak\' which is closer to their pronunciation.
http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Text/Scribal/scribal....

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-03-30 22:31:53 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

And you also have Kirkuk vs Kirkuq, Uruq vs Uruk, Osiraq vs Osirak.

I agree with Georgios Paraskevopoulos:
{Please note that Sumeria and Babylonia are the same place - an older name for that was Ur or Uruq - and today\'s name for this is Iraq.} from http://www.geocities.com/satanicreds/s-t-p.html

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-03-30 23:01:01 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

And \'Uruk\' is the first civilisation on earth. The \'cradle of western civilization\'.
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0850216.html
Uruk, in southern Iraq, often considered the world\'s first true city, is the place where writing first appeared. Its legendary king, Gilgamesh, is the subject of the oldest-known epic story, in which he fails in his quest to elude death but achieves immortality by building Uruk\'s great city wall. So complete was the city\'s economic dominance of Mesopotamia from about 3500 to 3000 B.C. that mosaics made of baked clay cones, a feature considered evidence of an Uruk administrative or mercantile presence, are found from Turkey to Egypt.
from http://www.amnh.org/naturalhistory/features/0201_feature.htm...
Selected response from:

#41698 (LSF)
Malaysia
Local time: 10:11
Grading comment
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
4 +16the reason is the general transliteration rule (Arabic to English)
Kirill Semenov
4 +9Iraq in English, Irak in German
swisstell
5 +1Uruk =Iraq (Irak)
Georgios Paraskevopoulos
3 +2Iraq in English, Irak in some European languages
writeaway
5Iraq
Сергей Лузан
3 +2Iraq (present use) Irak (after WWI)
#41698 (LSF)


  

Answers


4 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +9
Iraq in English, Irak in German


Explanation:
as far as I know

swisstell
Italy
Local time: 04:11
Native speaker of: German
PRO pts in pair: 170

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Chinoise
1 min
  -> thanks
agree  Hermeneutica: Or, in French, Lirac .... :)) Have one on me!
8 mins
  -> non, c'est l'Irac mais merci tout de même
agree  Anna Bittner
13 mins
  -> thanks
agree  Yelena.
26 mins
  -> thanks
agree  jccantrell
8 hrs
agree  vladex: Irak is also in Polish
12 hrs
agree  Nadia-Anastasia Fahmi
15 hrs
agree  Georgios Paraskevopoulos
1 day 24 mins
agree  Сергей Лузан
1 day 1 hr
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

6 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +2
Iraq in English, Irak in some European languages


Explanation:
in German, it's Irak, in French it's Iraq or Irak.

writeaway
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in pair: 36

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Therese Nichols
35 mins
agree  Сергей Лузан
1 day 1 hr
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33 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5
Iraq


Explanation:
was written in French initially, and it used to be a French way to spell it. Russian military experts went there with knowlrdge of French 20 years ago.
Own experience. Good luck, Lacrimosa!

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-03-31 22:25:55 (GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------

Typo - knowlErdge

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-03-31 22:26:22 (GMT) Post-grading
--------------------------------------------------

Typo - knowlEdge



Сергей Лузан
Russian Federation
Local time: 05:11
Native speaker of: Native in RussianRussian
PRO pts in pair: 49
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38 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +16
the reason is the general transliteration rule (Arabic to English)


Explanation:
q a type of k-sound, but pronunced deep in the throat

See the link below:


    Reference: http://i-cias.com/babel/arabic/005.htm
Kirill Semenov
Ukraine
Local time: 05:11
Native speaker of: Native in RussianRussian
PRO pts in pair: 311

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Empty Whiskey Glass
3 mins
  -> thank you :)
agree  William Stein: Right, it's the famous letter "qaf", which, together with 'ayin", is one of the sounds that drives students of Arabic crazy.
4 mins
  -> :))) thank you :)
agree  Adam Zakrzewski: exactely
10 mins
  -> thank you :)
agree  Kim Metzger
11 mins
  -> thank you :)
agree  Edith Kelly
17 mins
  -> thank you :)
agree  writeaway
20 mins
  -> thank you :)
agree  Martin Perazzo
22 mins
  -> thank you :)
agree  Fuad Yahya: The standard English rendition is IRAQ. The letter Q is used for the Arabic letter QAF in most systems of romanization of Arabic, because the letter Q is ultimately derived from the Phoenecian letter that corresponds to the Arabic letter QAF.
57 mins
  -> nice explanation :) thank you :)
agree  jerrie
1 hr
  -> thank you :)
agree  Ino66 (X)
2 hrs
  -> thank you :)
agree  Scott Horne (X)
4 hrs
  -> thank you :)
agree  Kardi Kho: I kuite agree!
5 hrs
  -> thanq you :)
agree  Sarah Ponting
11 hrs
  -> thank you :)
agree  Nadia-Anastasia Fahmi: Great backgroung info Kirill!!
15 hrs
  -> yes, I am glad I found the site and will definitely use it. thank you :)
agree  Andrea Wright
21 hrs
  -> thank you :)
agree  Сергей Лузан
1 day 1 hr
  -> ñïàñèáî :)
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +2
Iraq (present use) Irak (after WWI)


Explanation:
'Irak' was used in English for some time after World War I. Before independence, The colonial power in Iraq was the British and the British had a habit of twisting the pronunciation of place names to fit their mother tongue.

Iraq in other languages:
French - Iraq or Irak.
German - Irak.
Spanish - Irak.
Malay (Malaysia) - Irak.
Indonesian (Indonesia) - Irak.
Slovene (Slovenia) - Irak.

The British being the odd one out?

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-03-30 20:25:05 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

And, if written by the Arabs, it is likely that they would use \'Irak\' which is closer to their pronunciation.
http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Text/Scribal/scribal....

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-03-30 22:31:53 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

And you also have Kirkuk vs Kirkuq, Uruq vs Uruk, Osiraq vs Osirak.

I agree with Georgios Paraskevopoulos:
{Please note that Sumeria and Babylonia are the same place - an older name for that was Ur or Uruq - and today\'s name for this is Iraq.} from http://www.geocities.com/satanicreds/s-t-p.html

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-03-30 23:01:01 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

And \'Uruk\' is the first civilisation on earth. The \'cradle of western civilization\'.
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0850216.html
Uruk, in southern Iraq, often considered the world\'s first true city, is the place where writing first appeared. Its legendary king, Gilgamesh, is the subject of the oldest-known epic story, in which he fails in his quest to elude death but achieves immortality by building Uruk\'s great city wall. So complete was the city\'s economic dominance of Mesopotamia from about 3500 to 3000 B.C. that mosaics made of baked clay cones, a feature considered evidence of an Uruk administrative or mercantile presence, are found from Turkey to Egypt.
from http://www.amnh.org/naturalhistory/features/0201_feature.htm...


    Reference: http://www.geocities.com/sloughiman/sloughiman/saluqi.html
#41698 (LSF)
Malaysia
Local time: 10:11
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in pair: 53

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Сергей Лузан
1 day 51 mins
agree  writeaway: but a bit slanted, your way of putting things. politics and jabs at nationalities are not supposed to be used on ProZ.
1 day 57 mins
  -> Can't help jabbing at the British tongue. They also changed 'Singapura' to 'Singapore' and 'Mumbia' to 'Bombay', etc.
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +1
Uruk =Iraq (Irak)


Explanation:
Country name
IRAQ =IRAK
by the Englishmen after World War I.

City of Uruk

URUK. (Iraq) Situated 250 km south of Baghdad, on an ancient branch of the Euphrates River in Iraq, known in the Bible as Erech (now Warka, Iraq). Uruk, founded about 3500BC, became the first major city in Sumer. Gilgamesh built the walls of the city Uruk, and the Eanna (house of An) temple complex there, dedicated to Ishtar (goddess of love, procreation, and war). Excavations by German archaeologists from 1912 onwards have revealed a series of very important structures and deposits of the 4th millennium BC and the site has given its name to the period that suceeeded the UBAID and prceeded the JEMDET NASR period.

Follow the link below
search for URUK.

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Note added at 2003-03-31 04:10:33 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Iraq (english), Irak (arabian and German)

Answer to AdamZ who disagreed

{Please note that Sumeria and Babylonia are the same place - an older name for that was Ur or Uruq - and today\'s name for this is Iraq.}
Under Introduction at link below you will find a definition of the name Ur>>Uruk>>Iraq (Irak)

http://www.geocities.com/satanicreds/s-t-p.html



    Reference: http://home.achilles.net/~sal/iraq_history.html
Georgios Paraskevopoulos
Local time: 05:11
Native speaker of: Native in GreekGreek, Native in SwedishSwedish
PRO pts in pair: 4

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
disagree  Adam Zakrzewski: Iraq is not derived from Uruk.
8 mins
  -> give a document [Uruk, Erech] is not Irak (Iraq). I'll send you documentation
agree  #41698 (LSF): see my additions
1 hr
  -> thank you Siong Fong, especially for your additions
agree  Сергей Лузан
1 day 25 mins
  -> thank you
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