Pronouncing airline names can be complicated for a variety of reasons. Often this confusion comes down to acronyms vs. initialisms, with the former being abbreviations that are pronounced as words, and the latter being abbreviations that are pronounced as letters. In other situations, the confusion can down to the name originating in a foreign language,…
Continue reading: Mispronounced Airline Names: ANA, Etihad, EVA, ITA, JAL, Qatar, Etc.
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Thanks for an updated version of this posting,
For JAL, you state that it is pronounced: “jah-l” and that it is one syllable. That looks like two syllables. Is it "jahl" pronounced or "jah-l"?
It feels so odd saying “jahl” so I think I’ll just stick with pronouncing it “Japan Airlines.”
I get irritated when people try for Cutter or Gutter, neither of which makes any sense either for an English pronunciation of "Qatar" or a representation of the Arabic.
I blame the Brits.
James K, clearly you are just winding the readers up today, these adulterated American pronunciations of common words have nothing to do with your “Brits”.
The word JAL, is an abbreviation of Japan Airlines. Pronounced JAL in English as there is no (h) or (-) present, yes?
Ben should have a follow up and write about how the airline names are said in the native language.
It’s a different story in Japanese, but I’m trying to keep things simple here…
🙂
Many older people in Scandinavia pronounce SAS as "ess-aa-ess", with the e as in the word "egg". Maybe it was the official way a long time ago?
UK reader here. I have never once heard any Brit saying anything other than kah-taar. The only time I've ever heard 'cutter' was on an American voice over of a TV ad for the Qatar Foundation. I remember thinking at the time that it stood out as sounding weird. Sorry, as AeroB13a says, can't blame the Brits for this one.
Living in the UK I have never heard anybody in the UK pronounce Qatar as ‘cutter’. I only ever hear it in American news channels—usually Fox.
Genuine question - Ben stated re: Etihad:
you’re pretty safe if you go with “e-ti-had” (make sure you pronounce it as three syllables rather than two).
How could it possibly be pronounced as just two syllables? Am I missing something?
Thought I would solve it once and for all when I flew EVA last month, and heard gate agents in the US, Taiwan, and Korea, as well as the pilots and flight crew, call it equally E-V-A and eva.
I lived in Japan for many years and still visit frequently. A few of my Japanese friends and colleagues (but not spouse) pronounce it J-A-L in English, interestingly enough, even though they say ジャル (the equivalent of jahl in Japanese phonemes) in Japanese.
I agree with all except EVA, I worked at SFO for 30 years and handled 1000’s of EVA flights. Now whether the EVA staff just became “Americanized” (I doubt it) even they referred to it as Ev-ah.
Um "cutter" is closer to the Arabic pronunciation of Qatar than "kah-tahr".... The point is the emphasis should be placed on the first syllable, not the second as too many Americans do
What about the incorrect addition of an N, at the end of the name, of the Seattle based carrier?
SAS, JAL and TAP are all acronyms of the past. Scandinavian Airline System, Japan Air Lines and Transportes Aereas Portugese. Also, EVA’s call sign is “Eva” so that only cements that pronunciation.
"Royal Aviation Company"
Presumably the Dutc looks funny to English speakers, to which I'd point out that at least the letter combinations are all pronounced the same way regardless of what word they're in and raise them the "-ough" sound in English, for which you have about a 1/8 chance of pronouncing correctly if forced to come across a new word that contains it.
Although only tangentially related to a primarily Air Travel blog, I don’t think I have ever seen as many misnamed travel brands than Amtrak’s Coast Starlight (the official, trademarked name)
Coastal Starliner
Coast Starliner
Coastal Starlight
Coastal Star
Coast Twilight
Starlight Express
Pacific Starliner
Pacific Starlight
Coast Limited*
Coastal Limited*
*These were both names of trains that ran on the original route within California but discontinued by 1937, so I suppose vague partial credit to those that use them today.
I never understood the logic behind E-V-A.
I read that they want it this way because it's the abbreviation for Evergreen Airlines and even there crews are told to only pronounce it that way. But then it totally doesn't make sense to call the airline "EVA Air", meaning "Evergreen Airlines Air".
Besides, I also see the missed opportunity to pronounce EVA as "ever". The sound of "Ever Air" would be much closer to the original meaning of "Evergreen Airlines".
New Zealanders will certainly have no problem with the most authentic pronunciation of Etihad!
Regarding TAP, I'm confused. I used to work on a project with them and they were systematically referring to it as "T-A-P", and as such since then I've started calling them this.
I believe what Ben means is that the two Arabic letters for t (ت and ط) do not exactly match English pronunciation
Regarding Qatar I have to say, if you pronounce the name of this country as it's supposed to be pronounced in the language you are speaking, you should be safe no?
In Portugal everybody calls it "tap", not T-A-P. But given that "tap" has a meaning in English, I understand why some people would prefer calling it T-A-P.
Once, in Newark, I asked where the T-A-P counter was, and they replied that the "tap" counter was over there 🙂
Hi, Ben. Bit of an odd one on Etihad. Arabic has a T just like English. In Etihad, it’s like a double T. English does not, however, have the guttural “h” sound, as in the name Ahmad, in Etihad. What you don’t mention also is that English speakers put the stress in the wrong place on Arabic words. For Etihad, correct prononciation is It-ti-haad, two short vowels followed by a long vowel at the end, with the stress on the last syllable (and not the first): three syllables, stress on the last syllable, same as “entourage” for example. Etihad means union, as the crew will now tell you each time you’re on one of their flights. In Arabic, the airline is called Al-Ittihad, which is what is written on their planes in Arabic. For Qatar, stress is on the first syllable, as in “cutter”. English does not have a letter that corresponds to the guttural K sound in Qatar, or the T sound in Qatar, which is not really a T, but a different letter without an equivalent in English. The way most English speakers pronounce Qatar, as if it’s “catarrh” is wrong. “Cutter” is actually pretty close to the right pronunciation, given the absence of equivalent letters in English. In Arabic, airline is called Al-Qatariyah, as appears on their planes in Arabic.
The German pronounciation would be:
Shlap - peek
Sch is pronounced like sh of "ship"
the "a" is like a short groan "ah" in comparision to the "ea" sound in english.
pig is not pronounced like the english name of the animal but with a longer i (similar to the sound in peek)
"Some mild deviations from that are fine as well, like depending on where you want to put the emphasis. While “cutter” isn’t the correct way to pronounce it, it does seem to be a common way for Brits to say it. No matter what, avoid the beginning of the word being along the lines of “kwah” or “kyu.”"
I've never heard a British person say "cutter" - as far as I'm concerned I've only heard Americans say it like that. I agree that it should be "Cat Ar" - the sort of thing a pirate might say if thinking longingly about his pet cat...
My Swedish family has all worked at SAS from the inception of the company through the 2000s and not a single one of them ever referred to the carrier as "sass". It was always "ess-eh-ess".
"it’s much more common to sound out “EVA” than it is to sound out “ANA.”
Really? That would mean its also more common to say Anna than Eva.
I'm no expert here, but never once thought that it was Anna because its an abbreviation of All Nippon Airways. As for EVA, I don't know if its an abbreviation -- I think its a truncation of Evergreen, and also don't remember the last time I thought about EVA, much less said its name outloud.
Japanese people call ANA Anna, and that's how you should call it, just like you cal Colonge in Germany "Koln", not the perfume way.
You always stick with the way the locals would have called it.
Officially, it’s pronounced as “Ei-En-Ei” as all announcements are made in such a way.
Colloquially though, the locals still say “Anna”.
Etihad is pronounced IT-ti-HAAD. there is definitely a T sound in Arabic. Not sure who tried to sound it out to you.
Ben, the letter "t" exists in Arabic as "ta", with at least four conjugations, but we'll skip morphology. Qatar is the one that most English speakers get wrong, because of the letter "Qaaf" from the back of the tongue which doesn't exist in English, like a hard "cough". QAH with emphasis, followed by an abbreviated "-Tar", in two pronounced syllables, not amalgamated like "cutter".
Etihad is softer than you described, not "Eee-ti-had", but "Eh-ti-had", with the letter "Ayn" pronounced crisply, but not harsh. Of course, there's variance; I learned Arabic in the Levant. There's at least 25 different dialects, and varies even more between cities.