'Quran'? What happened to 'Koran'?

[tuvor]

Is it me, or is the press spelling 'Quran' a recent development?

If so, why? And why now? Does 'Quran' look somehow less "holy" to western eyes than 'Koran'?

Or maybe I just haven't been paying attention.

[benburch]

1. Transliterations of non-Romance languages into English...

are ALWAYS problematic. Either is correct in English.

[tuvor]

3. I knew it was problematic.

(Aren't there supposed to be some twenty or thirty ways to spell 'Ghadaffi'?)

I just don't recall seeing 'Quran' until lately. As far as my experience is concerned, it's always been 'Koran'. I was just wondering if it was just me.

[jobycom]

6. Qur'an is the way a scholar would spell it, Koran is more traditional

The print media is just picking up on the academic norm, I guess.

[3waygeek]

9. Not quite that many

ways to spell the Libyan leader's name, but there are quite a few.

[lenidog]

2. Unlike Chinese no one has decided on whats the standard way

of transliteration for Arabic. So there are usually a couple ways to spell any Arabic word. Either spelling is considered right.

[Malikshah]

10. Actually, western academia uses a transliteration style

adopted by the Encylopaedia of Islam--

it's adjusted a bit.. J for DJ and Q for K w/ a dot under it

but overall there's a standard.

Qur'an (w/ a macron denoting a "long a"/alif) is the most accurate transliteration. Luckily w/ Arabic-- what you see is what you get. No superfluous vowels or consonants to muck things up.

[NMDemDist2]

4. I've seen it both ways, when I studied Islam as a teen it was always

Quran--- Koran looks stupid to me and the Qur'an I owned spelled it with a Q on the title page

[jobycom]

5. Qur'an is a more recent transliteration. Koran is an old form

Arabic has a lot of sounds that don't translate well into the Phoenician alphabet. One of the sounds is sort of a pause, and that's represented by the ' in Qur'an. Say the words "some ice" as though you are trying not to say "some mice," and you have that pause.

The rules of transliterations from Arabic fluctuate as scholars find more accurate ways to represent the sound. Thus, Qur'an is considered more accurate, because the Qu sound is closer than the KU sound. It's actually even more guttaral than Qu. Arabic has three such "K/Q" sounds, whereas English has only two.

Beyond that, I would run out of knowledge. :-)

[Malikshah]

11. It is difficult, true

The Q in arabic, I was taught, sounds like the sound made when one imitates a crow ("caw") A back of the throat "k" sound, vs. the middle of the mouth "k" sound as in cake.

God, I need to get a life.;)

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. This site prefers 'Quran'

(in fact, maybe 'Qur‘an').

Inexact spellings such as "Mecca" and "Koran" entered the English language a long time ago and have become so entrenched that they are now difficult to eradicate.

http://www.al-bab.com/arab/language/roman1.htm

[tuvor]

8. Thanks, everyone

I'm now a little less ignorant about everything. :)

[technoteacher]

12. Oh, the pitfalls of transliteration

But I have my own system, he he he he