Help with Arabic

[Barcode]

Heya,

I am working on some names for an adventure I am writing, and I need some help with the Arabic translations. I tried the illustrious masters of the Web, but sadly the online English-Arabic dictionaries all seem to give the translations in Arabic script, and since I don't speak Arabic, I also don't read it (so thanks for nothing, Brainiacs!). I really just want English/Phonetic spellings.

So if there are any Arabic speakers out there, or if anyone has access to an English-Arabic dictionary, could you give me the Arabic words for the following?

Fire
Wind
Earth
Water
Whisper
Shadow
Hell
Heaven
Spider
Scorpion
Lion
Darkness
Light

Much appreciated. I would also gladly take a link to a useful online dictionary, with which I could find the translations myself.

Thanks in advance...

-B-

 

[alsih2o]

http://muttaqun.com/arabic/english2arabic.html

translations in script and "sounded out"

not nearly everything, but a decent start

 

[Barcode]

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, I caught this one already - phonetic spellings, but woefully incomplete. None of the words I need is included therein...

I thought of naming the BBEG "Where is the bathroom?" and the party's NPC ally "Good evening, father", but it just didn't feel right.

 

[Pielorinho]

If you want to take a different approach, you could go to Websites of Arabic Names and look for ones with appropriate meanings.

Fire
Wind -- Shamal - Wind that comes from the north
Earth -- Wajid - Smooth land
Water --Nawfal - Generous; old Arabic name for the sea
Whisper -- Hudun - To become quiet
Shadow -- Afya - Shadows
Hell
Heaven -- Ridwan - Acceptance, satisfaction; name of the keeper of the gates of Heaven
Spider
Scorpion
Lion -- Sab - Lion
Darkness -- Adham - Black or dark
Light -- Anwar - Radiant, full of light

Some of these might work.
Daniel

 

[Pielorinho]

This page might also be useful -- it contains words from the Quran.

Fire
Wind: (Ad) Dabur : Westerly wind. or As-Sabâ : Easterly wind. or Hadath (Small) : Passing wind or urine or answering the call of nature.
Earth
Water: Nabîdh : Water in which dates or grapes etc. are soaked and is not yet fermented.
Whisper
Shadow
Hell: As-Sirât : Sirât: originally means 'a road'; it also means the bridge that will be laid across Hell-Fire for the people to pass over on the Day of Judgement. It is described as sharper than a sword and thinner than a hair. It will have hooks over it to snatch the people. (not exact, but pretty dang cool, if you ask me)
Heaven: Al-Bait-ul-Ma'mur : Allah's House over the seventh heaven.
Spider
Scorpion
Lion
Darkness
Light

Daniel

 

[Pielorinho]

Some more, from this pop-up laden site

Aleser: arabic: Lion
From a site that lists Arabic names for stars:

Al-'Aqrab The scorpion

From an online copy of the Quran, a sura with a relevant name:

Sura - 29 The Spider ( Al-'Ankaboot)

From a site describing Holiday wishes in Arabic:

Kinara--Candle holder--from the Swahili prefix Ki- and the Arabic word "naar"--fire.

Does that cover all the words on your list, or at least get close enough?

Daniel

 

[Fenes 2]

I was planning to post about the same question (looking for some arabian translations)... thank you all.

 

[Pielorinho]

I run a game in a pseudo-Byzantine world, with various other cultures, so I'm used to looking up such things for myself. Generally, I'm pretty flexible: I'll do some web research, find a word with a cool, vaguely-relevant meaning, and yoink it. Turkish is easier, with http://www.hazar.com/ a great resource.

Otherwise, I tend to print out a list of a few hundred names from the language in question, and refer to it when I need something on the spot. It works well for me.

Daniel

 

[Maerdwyn]

Fire: Naar
Wind: Reeyah
Earth: Arad
Water: Mah
Whisper: Hamas (a different H from that in Hamas, the Paletinian group)
Shadow: Dhall
Hell: Al-Jaheem
Heaven: Al-Sama' (pretty approximate - the first letter is an 'ayn)
Spider: Ankaboot (again with the 'ayn)
Scorpion: 'Aqrab (ditto)
Lion: Asad
Darkness: Dhulamaat (same root at shadow, above)
Light: Nur

There are alternates for pretty much all of these, depending on context (litereral vs. figurative darkness, for example.)

For online translators, I like http://www.almisbar.com/salam_trans.html
But it won't transliterate for you, so you need to know the alphabet.

 

[Raesene Andu]

Try http://www.foreignword.com/
That is the site I use for more of my translating and is the best online dictionary site I know of.