What do you call the iPad in Arabic?

What do you call the iPad in Arabic? Sorry, can't help you there, but then neither can Google Translate, which transliterates whatever the iPad is called in Arabic into the English "Aye Bad". As mistranslations (of this BBC report) go, this is particularly serendipitous, confirming, at a nadir between the two companies, that …

[peter 5]

My chance to use the "Grammar Nazi" icon.

Loanwords are foreign words embedded in a language with only the spelling and/or pronunciation adjusted, like, say, bungalow. But none of the fruit you cite come directly from the Arabic. Apricot and lime are--at a stretch--loaned, loan words, but orange has a far richer etymology, and the pedant in me wouldn't describe any of them as loanwords, except for the purpose of snappy journalism--

Oh, I see. Carry on as you were...

[No, I will not fix your computer]

My chance to use the "Grammar Nazi" icon.

But it's not bad grammar, for example it's not bad grammar to say a verb is a noun, but it would be bad grammar to use a verb as a noun, in other words saying Orange is a loanword is not bad grammar (it's just wrong), but using Orange as a loanword would however be bad grammar.

[Richard 120]

Aaaaaaaargh

Shutup!

[mustnap]

Not really intentional

Not sure whether the writer knows arabic or not, but in arabic, there is no letter that could make the "P" sound so for foreign products that use the letter P, they will replace it with "B" (the closest pronunciation of the P sound that they could come up with). As an example, in the arab world, people call PEPSI as "BEBSI". So for "iPad" case, for the non-english speaking arabs, they will pronounce it as iBad (or Aye Bad). Not really google's fault IMHO. Also, since google relies on the masses to provide better translations for its translation service, the translation for the word Apple, (the arabic text is pronounced as "Able"), has been fixed to "Apple". Since "iPad" was newly created by Apple, nobody had suggested a better translation of it from arabic to english so google is just pronouncing the word the way it was written in arabic.

[mustnap]

additional info

in arabic, they word "Aye" (if you pronounce it) it means ANY or WHICH. So for the title of the news, Google translation service gave the transliteration of the word, and for the following AYEs, Google gave the translation of the word AYE.

[saif]

no "P" in arabic

That's because there is no letter equivalent of "P" in arabic...all P's are replaced by "B"s. This sometimes helps because calling someone a "brat" not too bad, and saying he is a "Brick" again seems almost complimentary...

[Steven Knox]

Phonetic Transliteration:

Rarely a good idea. Google's translator did it here because it couldn't find a relevant word. But in this case, the BBC did it first (from English to Arabic in the original report). Now the real question is, did the BBC get the Arabic name from Apple, from another source (perhaps their own (or Google's again) automatic translator), or did they make it up on their own?

[Peter Bond]

Oranges and Apricots

thought those words came from Sanskrit and Latin respectively, not Arabic.

[Anonymous Coward]

Via Arabic

The word Apricot does originally come from Latin praecocia (because it ripened early in the year).

But this was borrowed by the Arabs as al-barqūq which then came back into Spanish (during the Arab occupation) as albaricoque, which became abercoc in Catalan, which became abricot in French. Which is where we get apricot from.

So, yes. And, indeed, no.

[VeganVegan]

Glad to meet you, Ayebad, I am ...

Sinbad the Sailor Man!

[Goat Jam]

Ummmm

Popeye perhaps?

[John F***ing Stepp]

Sinpad sounds like something a sailor would download pron on.

So, where, pray tell, would I acquire one?

(just worst case scenario, like the peelers* wanted me to help with their inquiries and all.)

*I get that right? that British crap sometimes goes over my head.

'

[Ted Treen]

Which...

do you wish to acquire?

A "sinpad" or a sailor?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hello AyeBad and Sinbad,....

I'm StrongBad

[James 5]

Aye Bad could also be...

Yes Bad or Always Bad (in Scots).

And given the slang usage of "Bad" could mean very Good.

So you takes your language and your choice.

[Jad]

Moses Tablet ...

Smart

[Frank Bough]

Doesn't work

...because the JesusPhone came first.

[Anonymous Coward]

Any Store

Google Translate also says: "the device can download the publications of the role directly through a new site called "Any Store"."

Nice name. Remember, it's not just any store, it's The Any Store.

[Roger Greenwood]

My favourite from Arabic

is alcohol. (Really!)

[Rod MacLean]

Aye Bad?

It also says it's the "Any Bad" and that there is no "program to deal with the cartoons on the internet"

[David Cantrell]

Orange

The Arabic word for orange (both the colour and the fruit) is burtuqaal. So "orange" isn't an Arabic loanword, but "Portugal" is.

[Anonymous Coward]

Orange

From a southern Indian language, I think. Via Spanish "naranja". Possibly also via Arabic...

[J 3]

but "Portugal" is

No, it's not. É pá!

[John 62]

<fraser>

och aye! it's aye bad fer apple, the noo, </fraser> etc...

[John70]

What's next...

We have the Jesus Phone, Moses tablet...

What's next... Noah's Ark for a storage server?

[Anonymous Coward]

RAID 1

Would the Noah's Ark storage server have to use RAID1, in order to have two copies of everything?

[Cameron Colley]

So, what did Hilary Duff do do mountain view?

I was highly amused to find that Google translates (Dutch) Sinterklaas' helper Zwarte Piet's name into Hilary Duff.

[NogginTheNog]

My arch-nemisis

I should point out was Nogbad The Bad! Dunno if he's arabic but he is a bit 'swarthy' looking!

[Anonymous Coward]

What do you call the iPad in Arabic?

iCRAP! in any language !

[B99YYK]

This could be awkward

Blimey they have a problem dont they.

God bothers the world over are in a quandry.

First the Jesus Computer

Then the Jesus Phone

Now the Jesus pad

Oh yeah cant use that word without causing problems perhaps Prophet erm no well it looks like we will have to just call it a big PDA or perhaps a netbook without the keyboard. Not that it matters fanboys will buy it in droves bless em!

[elderlybloke]

It is all

Greek to me mate.