Arabian supplement : hard-to-pronounce names?

How should I convey Arabic names?

  • Direct Transliteration - most accurate, but potentially the hardest on the reader

    Votes: 22 43.1%

  • Include an English translation/equivalent of the word in parenthesis

    Votes: 23 45.1%

  • Include phonetic pronunciation guides in parenthesis

    Votes: 14 27.5%

  • Include phonetic pronunciation guides in a glossary/index/appendix

    Votes: 21 41.2%

  • Use only the English forms of the words, but use Arabic if no English form exists

    Votes: 3 5.9%

  • Use only the English forms of the words; make up a simplified form of the word if none exists.

    Votes: 1 2.0%

  • When creating NPCs, give them basically realistic names

    Votes: 15 29.4%

  • When creating NPC, give them names which are as simple as possible

    Votes: 7 13.7%

  • Just call them all Bruce.

    Votes: 3 5.9%

  • Other (Please Comment Below)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
I am all for keeping the feel and accuracy of the culture, but you also need to remember the audience you are reaching. If you expect your audience to be linguophiles, then you are going down the right path.

If, however, you want your appeal as broad as possible, at least including an anglicized translation (Cairo, Gohar the Sicilian, etc.) is necessary. Including both forms, with the proper name first gives a nod to the culture first, and then provides an alternative that can keep a vague feel of the setting, and also be pronounceable to your predominantly English-speaking audience.
 

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By the way, JoeCrow -
Isn't the plural of "presence" "HaDureen" or "Hazureen," (depending on the transliteration) rather than "Hazarat"?
 

This is a kind offer.

The book contains 51 spell titles, 50 of which are one word nouns, the exception being a noun with a single adjective. I don't know how much volume that would be for you.

I really should just learn the Arabic abjad/alphabet. Do you have a better source than this ?
 

That's an incredibly cool site!

For English-Arabic online translation, I like www.almisbar.com

transliteration 50ish words wouldn't take too long, but if you were planning on leanring the Arabicalphabet anyway, what might serve you beter in the long run. Let me know, and I'd be happy to do it.
 

Re: omniglot.com
If you're interested in interesting writing systems check out Burmese which was invented by rolling palm fronds, so every "letter" is related to a circle.

Re: Transliteration
If your email is in your profile, could I email you a document with the English, Arabic, and transliterated Arabic? That way I can learn the alphabet, and you could spend a short amount of time proofing my work.

I also made a few errors in my original look at the list, there are a number of noun modifying noun pharases in the list afterall.
 
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