OK, I don't claim to be an expert in Arabic, or even a dilettante. But I've heard multiple pronounciations of "Umm Qasr." Fox folks have been putting the accent on the second syllable. It seems to me that a syllable that doesn't even have a vowel of its own doesn't deserve an accent--the emphasis should be placed on the "Qas" part.

Am I right?

I'm not an expert on Arabic pronounciation, but lived in Baghdad as a young boy 45 years ago and spoke a bit of Arabic. If you read the introduction to "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom" you will see mention of how to write Arabic in English, with TEL apoligising for inconsistency. I mention that because I would say use K not Q and, yes, it has to be Kas-r not the Kasaar that many media folk are adopting. While I'm at it, Kuwait is frequently pronouned Q-8, when it it should be K-wait/Ku-wait.
Oh, bugger it, I might as well get another one off my chest (though it isn't Arabic): Nuclear pronounced Nukla...God that drives me into dement.

Andy I think we have the same raw nerve, if what you mean is this, nuke,YA,ler, instead of
nuke,LEE,er. I have seen MANY reporters on both sides of the political spectrum using the nuke,YA,ler mispronunciation, its maddening. Some of them seemed to switch when Mr. Bush came to office and he always uses nuke,Ya,ler. The emporer's new clothes?

The war in Iraq brings home once again the American lack of abillity to pronounce words with more than three sylables. Or they place the emPhAsis on the wrong SYLable!! This is somewhat better than when we went into Bosnia and some of the town names were almost all consonants, that really threw them.

What do they teach in college??

I've heard a few different pronunciations of "Qatar" for that matter, ranging from "kah-TAR" to "GUH-ter".

Well, I saw the Emir of Qatar (or whatever his title is) pronounce it "kah-TAR", and that's good enough for me.

Then again, why is it acceptable to anglicize European cities and towns (Firenza, Munchen, Kobenhavn, Roma, Napoli, Wien, Praha, Moskva, etc.) but an absolute requirement for everywhere else to pronounce the intonations and glottal stops with an exactness even the natives probably can't achieve? (Think Nu Yawk or N'awlins or Bawston, for that matter.)

Why is only as soon as you hit the "post" button, despite using the "preview", you notice a mistake that defeats the whole posting?

That was supposd to say that the Emir said "KAH-tar". D'oh.

My rule of thumb is: how does Rudi Bahktiar pronounce it?

What would she know? She's Persian, not Arab.

Hate to break it to you guys, but there is more than one way to pronounce the word nuclear. It is simple snobbery to claim that your way is correct and the other way is in error. A sizable minority (at least, maybe a majority) of the country pronounces it "wrong" to you... so it's not really that wrong.

See this wonderful discussion of the topic by Eugene Volokh.

Oh, Lordy, what a can of worms!

(pronounced: "Jiminy Cricket on rollerskates, don't people have better things to argue about?")

How Qasr is pronounced depends on whether there is supposed to be a vowel between the s and the r. If not, then it would be pronounced as you see it, i.e. the s & r run together and accenting the Q.

If there is a vowel sound there , it would be: a flat "a" (as in "Ahhh"), an "ee" (as in "whee"), or an oo, (as in "who") Generally, Arabic words are written out in consonant-only form, with the vowels filled in above or below the line. Incidentally, the vowels are generally not filled in in newspapers--you get the meanings from familiarity and context.

So, "Qasr" could be: Qasr, Qas(a)r, Qas(ee)r, or Qas(oo)r--all meaning different things.

This is important. For example "Qas" means "glass" as in a water glass or other such container. But, change that first "a" to the "oo" sound and you get the word "qoos" meaning "vulva or vagina"

Qoos ummak (your mother's vulva) is NOT a nice thing to say to an Arab.