Freethought & Rationalism Archive

gstafleu · 10-15-2006, 07:18 AM

I have seen all kinds of spellings for what is often called "Quran" (with or without apostrophes in various places) in English. Someone inserted an "e": Queran. I'm sure I have seen Qoran somewhere. And there is nothing stopping us, pronounciation wise, from using a K: Kuran, Koran.

So, is there an "official" spelling?

Gerard (In the old days we at least knew how to spell "Bible") Stafleu

French Prometheus · 10-15-2006, 08:15 AM

Koran is the traditional English spelling. Qur'an is the tranliteration of the Arabic pronunciation.

ETA: In French, we spell it Coran.

rickP · 10-15-2006, 08:49 AM

Since the actual spelling uses Arabic characters, any roman alphabet spelling is just a phonetic representation. So, however any language chooses to represent the sound, is technically ok. A standard may arise by common use in international news, but it is just a case of the one that gets standardized first.

JamesBannon · 10-15-2006, 09:01 AM

It depends basically on who I'm speaking to on the internet. If I'm speaking to a believer then I usually will stick to the spelling they use. If not, then I just stick to one spelling for consistency - usually Qu'ran.

gstafleu · 10-15-2006, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rickP

Since the actual spelling uses Arabic characters, any roman alphabet spelling is just a phonetic representation. So, however any language chooses to represent the sound, is technically ok. A standard may arise by common use in international news, but it is just a case of the one that gets standardized first.

Sure, but isn't there an official Arabic-English translitteration? I'm pretty sure there is e.g. a Chinese-English one, which is why we now have Bejing instead of Peking.

Gerard

Roger Pearse · 10-16-2006, 02:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prometheus_fr

Koran is the traditional English spelling. Qur'an is the tranliteration of the Arabic pronunciation.

ETA: In French, we spell it Coran.

Some older English texts use "Alcoran".

How to transliterate Arabic names into Roman letters is a general problem.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

The Bishop · 10-16-2006, 05:59 AM

Alef lamad, qaf reh alef noon....?

gstafleu · 10-16-2006, 06:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Bishop

Alef lamad, qaf reh alef noon....?

Good question (whatever it is

). So does {C/K/Q}{o/u}ran (insert your own apostrophe(s)) mean something? Like "Bible" means "books" for instance?

Gerard

pob14 · 10-16-2006, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gstafleu

Good question (whatever it is

). So does {C/K/Q}{o/u}ran (insert your own apostrophe(s)) mean something? Like "Bible" means "books" for instance?

Gerard

Something along the lines of "diligent reading."

Qur'an

jakejonesiv · 10-16-2006, 09:57 AM

Qur'an seems to be the prefered spelling by English speaking Muslims.

10-15-2006, 07:18 AM	#1
gstafleu Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: London, Ontario, Canada Posts: 1,719	How do we spell "Koran"? I have seen all kinds of spellings for what is often called "Quran" (with or without apostrophes in various places) in English. Someone inserted an "e": Queran. I'm sure I have seen Qoran somewhere. And there is nothing stopping us, pronounciation wise, from using a K: Kuran, Koran. So, is there an "official" spelling? Gerard (In the old days we at least knew how to spell "Bible") Stafleu

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10-15-2006, 08:15 AM	#2
French Prometheus Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: France Posts: 5,839	Koran is the traditional English spelling. Qur'an is the tranliteration of the Arabic pronunciation. ETA: In French, we spell it Coran.

10-15-2006, 08:49 AM	#3
rickP Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Bloomington, IL Posts: 1,079	Since the actual spelling uses Arabic characters, any roman alphabet spelling is just a phonetic representation. So, however any language chooses to represent the sound, is technically ok. A standard may arise by common use in international news, but it is just a case of the one that gets standardized first.

10-15-2006, 09:01 AM	#4
JamesBannon Veteran Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Paisley, Scotland Posts: 5,819	It depends basically on who I'm speaking to on the internet. If I'm speaking to a believer then I usually will stick to the spelling they use. If not, then I just stick to one spelling for consistency - usually Qu'ran.

10-16-2006, 05:59 AM	#7
The Bishop Regular Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: London Posts: 215	Alef lamad, qaf reh alef noon....?

10-16-2006, 09:57 AM	#10
jakejonesiv Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Atlanta Posts: 2,060	Qur'an seems to be the prefered spelling by English speaking Muslims.

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