Iraq vs. Irak question

[Luis Alonso Ramos]

(not about war, really) I was under the impression that it was "Iraq" with a Q in Spanish and "Irak" with a K in English. But both CNN and the BBC use Iraq (CP does too), while the two main Mexican television stations one uses Iraq and the other Irak. Anyone knows which is correct in what language? -- LuisR ──────────────   Luis Alonso Ramos   Chihuahua, Mexico   www.luisalonsoramos.com "Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics, I assure you that mine are greater." -- Albert Einstein

[Marc Clifton]

According to www.dictionary.com Iraq: A country of southwest Asia. Site of a number of ancient Mesopotamian civilizations, including Sumer, Akkad, Assyria, and Babylonia, the region fell to Cyrus the Great of Persia (6th century B.C.), Alexander the Great (4th century B.C.), Arabs (7th century), and later to the Ottoman Turks (16th century). It was established as an independent kingdom in 1921 and became a republic after the assassination (1958) of Faisal II. Baghdad is the capital and largest city. Population: 19,925,000. Irak: n : a republic in the Middle East; the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia was in the area now known as Iraq [syn: Iraq, Al-Iraq, Irak] That's one explanation. Marc Help! I'm an AI running around in someone's f*cked up universe simulator.
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[Luis Alonso Ramos]

So basically both are synonims and equally valid? -- LuisR ──────────────   Luis Alonso Ramos   Chihuahua, Mexico   www.luisalonsoramos.com "Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics, I assure you that mine are greater." -- Albert Einstein

[Juan Carlos Cobas]

In spanish the correct term is IRAK (the original Persian name is Erak). However, when talking about people from Irak you have to say "Iraquí" and not "Irakí"

[Luis Alonso Ramos]

Juan Carlos Cobas wrote: In spanish the correct term is IRAK. I looked in www.diccionario.com and none of them is listed. But I was almost sure it was Iraq... I had it all messed up. Juan Carlos Cobas wrote: you have to say "Iraquí" Yes, I knew this one. -- LuisR ──────────────   Luis Alonso Ramos   Chihuahua, Mexico   www.luisalonsoramos.com "Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics, I assure you that mine are greater." -- Albert Einstein

[Juan Carlos Cobas]

I have just consulted my encyclopedia and it states that the correct name is Irak (from Persian Erak). Iraq is incorrect in spanish.

[Tim Smith]

Looking around the web, it seems that it is also "Irak" in French. But that is given a very poor understanding of the language. Tim Smith I'm going to patent thought. I have yet to see any prior art.

[Juan Carlos Cobas]

Tim Smith wrote: Looking around the web, it seems that it is also "Irak" in French It makes sense. Spanish and French have many coincidences. babel.altalavista.com[^] confirms Irak (Spanish-French) and Iraq (English).

[Michael Dunn]

Not knowing the native pronunciation of the country's name, I would guess that the final sound is a uvular stop, which is [q] in IPA* and is often romanized with a letter 'q'. But since Romance/Germanic languages don't have that sound, it gets changed to [k], leading to the pronunciation [irak]. As for why French spells it "Irak", I can't say. Final 'q' in French is perfectly acceptable and sounds like 'k', for example "cinq". *International Phonetic Alphabet --Mike--    THERE IS NO     THERE IS NO    BUT THERE IS MAGIC PIXIE DUST  BUSINESS GENIE  CODE PROJECT Homepage | RightClick-Encrypt | 1ClickPicGrabber "You have Erica on the brain" - Jon Sagara to me

[Simple Inheritance]

Everything is correct in all languages. Arabic names use arabic alphabet and characters, so each country with an other alphabet defines proprietary rules for the transcription, mainly in an effort to restitute pronunciation, marginaly by following old habits of writing. This is the same for russian or chinese, but also many others languages. So in french/english: Irak - Iraq Bagdad - Baghdad Bassorah - Basra Chiites - Shiahs Pékin - Beijing Moscou - Moskow There are exemples where history brought totally different names for same places: ex: english/german/french Germany / Deutchland / Allemagne In general, I remarked that english strips a lot, while french fattens.