Pronunciation: Khanjar and Jambiya

Atlantia · 28th August 2012, 10:04 AM

Namaste Ibrahiim,

As you say most Europeans pronounce the word as spelt and sound the 'r' not just as 'Can-jaa' but actually 'Can-jar'.
My friend although English was discussing the correct Omani/Arabic pronunciation and she was adamant that the Omani's pronounce the word: 'Cun-ja'.
So is that 'soft' pronunciation localised to Oman or more widespread?

Ibrahiim al Balooshi · 28th August 2012, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atlantia

Namaste Ibrahiim,

As you say most Europeans pronounce the word as spelt and sound the 'r' not just as 'Can-jaa' but actually 'Can-jar'.
My friend although English was discussing the correct Omani/Arabic pronunciation and she was adamant that the Omani's pronounce the word: 'Cun-ja'.
So is that 'soft' pronunciation localised to Oman or more widespread?

Salaams ~ If its written its pronounced... The Kh at the beginning is important... Kh as in Scotlands Loch..and at the end a soft r... audible but not the rolling rrr of Northumberland and Scotish dialects. Och aye rrrright?
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

mohd · 30th August 2012, 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi

.. If its written its pronounced... The Kh at the beginning is important... Kh as in Scotlands Loch..and at the end a soft r... audible but not the rolling rrr of Northumberland and Scotish dialects. Och aye rrrright? ..

My mother tongue is Malay so in order to correctly pronounce the Arabic words or the Malay words which were borrowed from the Arabic words I had to learn what we called as Makhaarij.

The Makhaarij of the Letters means the correct position of the organs of speech in order to produce a letter so that it can be differentiated from others. This is equally so whether the letter is a consonant or a vowel.

mohd

blue lander · 27th December 2014, 04:44 PM

Resurrecting this old thread to add another data point: Yesterday I showed my sword/knife to an elderly Mongolian man. He only spoke a few words of English but he seemed to know a thing or two about swords, he showed me some nice draw cuts with my tulwar and nearly gave me a heart attack when he bent my kaskara nearly in half (thankfully it sprung back).

I couldn't understand what he was saying but I did notice he called my curved daggers "khanjar". He pronounced it kihn-jarrr with a rolled r at the end. So they call them khanjar in Mongolia and that's how they pronounce it.

Sancar · 28th December 2014, 09:19 PM

In Turkish, we pronounce "hançer" with a strong h so the first part is exactly like in the Turkic word khan) and the scond part of the word is pronounced as in chariot and cherry, and the final "r" sound is strong.

ariel · 31st December 2014, 07:41 PM

" Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?"
:-) :-)
Happy New Year!

kronckew · 1st January 2015, 04:58 PM

define 'english'.

the english i speak is differently pronounced than the english of the people around me. (i'm american, if you've forgotten

)

pronunciation of similar words here can vary over a distance of 20 miles or so.
pronunciations in the USA vary from north to south, east to west. canadian english and northern US american english are darn close until you get to the pronunciation of 'about', USA it's 'abowt', in canada it's 'aboot'. moving right along, spreading east and southwards from the UK, you'll have fun understanding a south african english accent - then when you get to autralia & NZ, even more vowel drift.

...and that's a language with a fairly strict spelling dictionary. also not mentioning that UK english accents changed a lot in the victorian era, prior to that, UK english sounded more like what they speak in west virginia, USA, according to linguists. (think of jody foster's accent in 'silence of the lambs', she doesn't actually speak like that in real life, she learned it with difficulty for the movie)

now take that and try to transcribe anything from that mess of english into a language that not only uses different characters to describe the sounds they use (and possibly sounds english doesn't even have) or a language like arabic where the vowels are indicated by little diacritical marks rather than by characters in the main alphabet (which only has an 'a' and a 'y'). the marks are even usually left off in texts as 'everybody knows' how to pronounce the word in their own dialect.

and heaven forbid you try chinese & their multiple dialects and 5000+ characters, which the japanese also use and renounce entirely differently.

then try translating a word from that other language back into english (or even the patois of 'engrish' used by many other countries)

it's a miracle we can understand anyone.

i, of course, do not have an accent

i suspect that anyone reading this also 'knows' THEY do not have an accent. everyone else does tho.

also haven't mentioned that we can use different words to describe things, like with my 18 mo. old saluki lurcher, she has 'feathers' (feathering). which i'm not sure what they are called in arabic to describe the long ear hair and wispy hair fringes on the back of their legs, on their feet and especially their tails.

bragtuitous doggy photo from last summer, her ear feathering is longer now) :

1st January 2015, 04:58 PM	#7
kronckew Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Room 101, Glos. UK Posts: 4,224	define 'english'. the english i speak is differently pronounced than the english of the people around me. (i'm american, if you've forgotten ) pronunciation of similar words here can vary over a distance of 20 miles or so. pronunciations in the USA vary from north to south, east to west. canadian english and northern US american english are darn close until you get to the pronunciation of 'about', USA it's 'abowt', in canada it's 'aboot'. moving right along, spreading east and southwards from the UK, you'll have fun understanding a south african english accent - then when you get to autralia & NZ, even more vowel drift. ...and that's a language with a fairly strict spelling dictionary. also not mentioning that UK english accents changed a lot in the victorian era, prior to that, UK english sounded more like what they speak in west virginia, USA, according to linguists. (think of jody foster's accent in 'silence of the lambs', she doesn't actually speak like that in real life, she learned it with difficulty for the movie) now take that and try to transcribe anything from that mess of english into a language that not only uses different characters to describe the sounds they use (and possibly sounds english doesn't even have) or a language like arabic where the vowels are indicated by little diacritical marks rather than by characters in the main alphabet (which only has an 'a' and a 'y'). the marks are even usually left off in texts as 'everybody knows' how to pronounce the word in their own dialect. and heaven forbid you try chinese & their multiple dialects and 5000+ characters, which the japanese also use and renounce entirely differently. then try translating a word from that other language back into english (or even the patois of 'engrish' used by many other countries) it's a miracle we can understand anyone. i, of course, do not have an accent i suspect that anyone reading this also 'knows' THEY do not have an accent. everyone else does tho. also haven't mentioned that we can use different words to describe things, like with my 18 mo. old saluki lurcher, she has 'feathers' (feathering). which i'm not sure what they are called in arabic to describe the long ear hair and wispy hair fringes on the back of their legs, on their feet and especially their tails. bragtuitous doggy photo from last summer, her ear feathering is longer now) : Attached Images Last edited by kronckew; 1st January 2015 at 05:23 PM.

28th August 2012, 10:04 AM	#1
Atlantia Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: The Sharp end Posts: 2,928	Namaste Ibrahiim, As you say most Europeans pronounce the word as spelt and sound the 'r' not just as 'Can-jaa' but actually 'Can-jar'. My friend although English was discussing the correct Omani/Arabic pronunciation and she was adamant that the Omani's pronounce the word: 'Cun-ja'. So is that 'soft' pronunciation localised to Oman or more widespread?

27th December 2014, 04:44 PM	#4
blue lander Member Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 456	Resurrecting this old thread to add another data point: Yesterday I showed my sword/knife to an elderly Mongolian man. He only spoke a few words of English but he seemed to know a thing or two about swords, he showed me some nice draw cuts with my tulwar and nearly gave me a heart attack when he bent my kaskara nearly in half (thankfully it sprung back). I couldn't understand what he was saying but I did notice he called my curved daggers "khanjar". He pronounced it kihn-jarrr with a rolled r at the end. So they call them khanjar in Mongolia and that's how they pronounce it.

28th December 2014, 09:19 PM	#5
Sancar Member Join Date: Sep 2013 Posts: 79	In Turkish, we pronounce "hançer" with a strong h so the first part is exactly like in the Turkic word khan) and the scond part of the word is pronounced as in chariot and cherry, and the final "r" sound is strong.

31st December 2014, 07:41 PM	#6
ariel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 5,503	" Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?" :-) :-) Happy New Year!