24 Comments
2247
You're right. There is no N sound at the end. It's "ruuza" or "rooza" depending on how you want to represent the sound و
EDIT: I previously said that the sound was correct, but after listening to it again, it seems incorrect because it pronounces an N at the end. The reason for this is that the text-to-speech engine is interpreting ا as اً because ً is commonly dropped. It can't tell that this is a person's name. So just know that there is no N sound at the end in this case :-)
- 2247
Take for example the word أهلاً. Notice the ً at the end, which adds an N sound. In most writings, this symbol is dropped, but the presence of the letter ا at the end of a word often implies a ً without it being written. In this case, there was a letter ا at the end, so the text-to-speech engine (program that speaks the text) added a ً when there shouldn’t be one. There shouldn’t be one because روزا is a proper noun (name of a person)
Alright now I understand, thank you. I wasn't familiar with the symbol ً . Does it have a specific name? In my grammar book I've only learned about the kasra, fatha, shadda, sukun and damma but no that one.
- 2247
This symbols is due to what is called nunation or تَنْوِين which is when you double a diacritic at the end of a word, in this case the فتحة. You can read more about nunation here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nunation
- 2247
You mean teh marbouta ة
That would fix the pronunciation, but that's just not how Rosa is normally written in Arabic, so it would break the writing.
Yeah, the pronouncer is saying "روزاً" with the " ً " diacritic; it's too early for that, just ignore it for now, I'm sure it'll be fixed soon.
- 2247
You're right. I listened to it again and provided an explanation in the EDIT of my answer above. Please check it out :-)
I guess the problem is in the last letter 'aa'. Adverbs end in this letter and in that case the letter has (optional) two little ligns added (ـًأ)which changes the sound from 'aa' to 'an'. In this context however it should be roozaa.
I hear "Ruuzan" too. The written word should be pronounced like “Ruuzaa”
- 2247
Some letters can’t take attachments after them because then they would look like other letters. For example, if you were to attach a letter after ز it would look like ن which when attached, looks like نـ
Just to make sure I got this right from the people commenting, و can sometimes be read as uu or as oo (with the o as in "door")?
- 35
No, "oo" as in "boot". But, Duolingo uses "uu" to represent the sound, not "oo".
- 132
Ok, this is frustrating, Duo. This whole lesson so far with the names is violating everything the previous lessons taught. These characters, according to the prior lessons, should map to r-uu-z-aa, and yet Ruuzaa is not accepted. Rethink the logic for this lesson and its placement, please.
- 35
In the alphabet section, we were being taught the sounds of the Arabic letters using Roman letters to represent them. "r-uu-z-aa" is the transliteration of the sounds of the Arabic letters روزا, not the translation of the word into it's English meaning: Rosa. We're being asked for the translation of the word here, not for the transliteration
There are three vowel sounds (it is said, even though I have been hearing many more than three sounds in the lessons) that are pronounced both short and long: "a, aa, u, uu, i. ii". Currently our lessons are introducing names of people, countries, and cities; such as George, Rosa, Carrie, Korea, Riga etc. There is a generally recognized way to spell people's names and the names of countries and cities: Rosa is R-o-s-a, George is G-e-o-r-g-e, and Korea is K-o-r-e-a etc. The problem is that the sounds of Arabic letters and English letters don't always line up. There are sounds that we have that they don't have and vice versa. So, we both try to represent the sounds in our spellings the best we can, but they don't always line-up. Take the name "Rosa": Arabic and English both have an R sound, but, we pronounce it differently. We use ر though. Arabic does not have the (same) "o" sound, the closest we can get is the elongated "u" sound (uu) و. S is the next letter. Arabic has an "s" sound with س. But, Rosa's "s" sounds like a "z", so the Arabic letter ز is used. Now, we come to alif "ا": the elongated "a" sound (aa). Hence روزا. (The pronunciation on the recording is whole other story.) If Arabic speakers were writing the Spanish pronunciation of "Rosa" in Arabic, the letters would be different because the Spanish pronunciation of Rosa is different than the English pronunciation of Rosa.
I hope I've been able to help you a bit with my explanation.
- 132
Thank you for your well-thought-out reply. I appreciate it. I do still think the lesson placement sets us up to stumble or completely miss their intent because they've focused strictly on sounds to this point and then violate everything they just taught, but I see your point about transliteration vs. translation.
