el/al bahnasa & el/al minya

English translation: Different spellings

11:17 Dec 17, 2006
Arabic to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Archaeology / need to confirm spelling
Arabic term or phrase: el/al bahnasa & el/al minya
I need to confirm which is more correct of teh following:

el bahnasa or al bahnasa

el minya or al minya

I also need to know which of the words should be capitalised.

I don't know any Arabic; this is for a translation on archaeology from Spanish to English.

TIA:-)
Lia Fail (X)
Spain
Local time: 23:37
English translation:Different spellings
Explanation:
You will find that the article "Al" is often rendered "El" in English, but "Al" is the proper spelling.

As for which part to capitalise, I don't think there's a real agreement on that. You will find al-Minya, Al-Minya and Al-minya.

Personally, I prefer the version "al-Minya", though "Al-Minya" is fine too. But I would avoid the third option, as I believe "Minya" should remain capitalised.
I would also put a dash between Al and the following word, just to make clear that it's really one word, composed of the article and the town name.


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Note added at 19 mins (2006-12-17 11:37:07 GMT)
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Check this out - from "Arabic Romanization at the Library of Congress" (The Library of Congress transliteration (romanization) system is widely adopted throughout the world):

In romanization, the article al- (“the”) is always lowercased and attached to the following word with a hyphen.
Arabic names often include the use of an inseparable prefix such as Abã, Ibn, Bint, }l. These are always capitalized wherever they appear except for Ibn and Bint. When used as the initial elements (including entry elements) of a name, Ibn and Bint are capitalized; otherwise,
they are lowercased. Example:
Ibn al-Firk
Bint al-Hudá

www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/arabic1.pdf
Selected response from:

Nesrin
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:37
Grading comment
Great explanation:-) Thanks
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +4Different spellings
Nesrin
4Both (with reasons)
ahmadwadan.com


  

Answers


8 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +4
Different spellings


Explanation:
You will find that the article "Al" is often rendered "El" in English, but "Al" is the proper spelling.

As for which part to capitalise, I don't think there's a real agreement on that. You will find al-Minya, Al-Minya and Al-minya.

Personally, I prefer the version "al-Minya", though "Al-Minya" is fine too. But I would avoid the third option, as I believe "Minya" should remain capitalised.
I would also put a dash between Al and the following word, just to make clear that it's really one word, composed of the article and the town name.


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 19 mins (2006-12-17 11:37:07 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Check this out - from "Arabic Romanization at the Library of Congress" (The Library of Congress transliteration (romanization) system is widely adopted throughout the world):

In romanization, the article al- (“the”) is always lowercased and attached to the following word with a hyphen.
Arabic names often include the use of an inseparable prefix such as Abã, Ibn, Bint, }l. These are always capitalized wherever they appear except for Ibn and Bint. When used as the initial elements (including entry elements) of a name, Ibn and Bint are capitalized; otherwise,
they are lowercased. Example:
Ibn al-Firk
Bint al-Hudá

www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/arabic1.pdf

Nesrin
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:37
Native speaker of: Arabic
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Great explanation:-) Thanks

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Khalid Nasir
51 mins

agree  Noha Kamal, PhD.: explained like only a pro could :)
1 hr
  -> Da bass men zo'ek! :-)

agree  Chowdhury: Great put!
4 hrs

agree  Abdallah Ali
13 hrs
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
Both (with reasons)


Explanation:
El-/Al-Bahnasa & El-/Al-Minya

Talking about Arabic, the last diacritical mark of a word changes the first diacritical mark (sound) of the following word. Example, Qalaallaho (Allah said), Besmellahe (In the name of Allah)…notice the letter before double L (ll)...it is "a" in (Qala”a”llaho) and “e” in (Besm”e”llahe). So I think that varieties in “Al” and “El” came from the varity of pronunciation resulting from diacritics.
Kind regards

ahmadwadan.com
Kuwait
Local time: 01:37
Native speaker of: Arabic
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