Timely reminder of how to pronounce Qatar

[RedDoorBlueHouse]

It's not Cuh-TAR as so many journalists seem to think.

It's more like CAT-uh

End of public service announcement!

I never knew this, thanks. I think we're all getting mixed up with catarrh

@RedDoorBlueHouse , it's more like Kat'r. but the K and T sounds aren't quite like they are in English.

I used to pronounce it Kwat-urghh 😆.

This has definitely mutated over my lifetime. It sounded like Kut Arr in the 70s/80s to rhyme with guitar. Then went to Kat Arr. And now it's like Cutt'r. And now the OP is different again 😭

If you live in or have anything to do with the actual country, then it is pronounced more like kuh-tar, with the emphasis on the second syllable. Not the Cat-ar pronunciation that is more common in the UK.

Thank you. I’ve been pronouncing it like mucus. 😂

I notice that the younger generations are more Cat-er thrse days, maybe because most go to the UK and US for university. I've been here 20 years and language had definitely changed, both Qatari dialect and pronunciation of English.

@SwedishEdith , yours is nearer than mine.

That seems to be a non-rhotic pronunciation. I think the r should be pronounced in Qatar.

https://forvo.com/word/%D9%82%D8%B7%D8%B1/

@RedDoorBlueHouse , see @Scentofgeranium 's post.

There is no doubt that is most correct. You're both right.
I think that slightly lengthened R sound is a bit more difficult for western speakers though so most people will end up saying CAT-ar. I mostly just get annoyed by the pronunciation that emphasises the second syllable as TAR so anything is better than that.

@RedDoorBlueHouse , it's difficult for those who don't have a rhotic accent.
CAT-ar not Ca-TAR.

I don't like the non-rhotic zhen-ruh and Sar-truh for genre and Sartre, or the way monoglots shift the stress if an unstressed syllable has a vowel that's not a schwa in it, which is possibly why they say Catarrh.

I think that slightly lengthened R sound is a bit more difficult for western speakers though so most people will end up saying CAT-ar.

@RedDoorBlueHouse
Lots of speakers of English in the West have a rhotic accent so they won’t have any trouble with an r in this position in a word. Most Irish, Scottish and American accents are rhotic. They will say CAT-ar with the r pronounced as a matter of course.

I agree with you about the emphasis though. It shouldn’t be on the second syllable, but it often is.

I was listening to the economist podcasts yesterday I and realised I’d been saying Catar which was clearly wrong. 😳

@Scentofgeranium , add to that list the speakers of languages with a rhotic R, like Spanish, Portuguese and Welsh.

I think it's midway between cutter and gutter...

So there!

There must be some Arabs on MN who can confirm that I am, as always, right....