How do you say “Qatar”?

Tuesday 7 October 2008
2130

I always used to pronounce the name of this country as “Ka-TAR”, with the emphasis on the second syllable (like “guitar”). Then, when I was stationed in Kuwait, I heard everybody pronouncing it as “Cutter”. I went on saying “Ka-TAR”, because I thought they were just being ignorant.

As it turns out, I was the ignorant one. Once I got assigned here, I wanted to pronounce it correctly so I looked it up. Sure enough, the dictionary said that the emphasis is on the first syllable, so it’s “KA-tar” (which, when you say it quickly, sounds a lot like “Cutter”). So I trained myself to pronounce it “KA-tar”, even though it seemed unnatural. I just doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily as “Ka-TAR”. When I went home on leave, many people commented on how I said it and I took the opportunity to explain it and “correct” them on the pronunciation.

Now since “correct” was in quotes above, you can probably see it coming…it turns out that wasn’t quite right, either! Once I got here I heard it being pronounced differently – more like I had heard it before, but not exactly. So I asked my sponsor and got the explanation that it is actually pronounced by the locals as “KAH-TAR”, with an almost equal emphasis on both syllables. There is probably some dictionary symbol to show that, but I don’t know what it is. For all I know that’s what my dictionary actually said and I just misunderstood the symbol.

I found this out a few days ago and was planning to write about it here, but just hadn’t gotten around to it. Then today I was in a newcomer’s briefing, and I heard one briefer use all three pronunciations within the space of about ten minutes. That was when I decided that it doesn’t really matter, since people are going to know where you’re talking about regardless.

Can you say “Qatar”? I knew you could….


Mood: Happy to finally get on the internet while I still have some battery power left
Music: Whatever loud music they are playing at the USO that drowns out my headphones