this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2024
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TIL Hebrew speakers pronounce Hamas as Khamas and that spelling is used to make fun of them. I thought it was a legit alternate spelling
The Hebrew letter Chet does indeed correspond to the Arabic letter ح which makes the hard H sound. Since most Hebrew speakers cannot pronounce it, the closest sound to them is KH (also represented by the letter Kuf, Arabic equivalent is خ), thus when they try to pronounce "Hamas", they end up saying "KHAMASSS". And no, Chet is not the only Hebrew letter affected by a sound change like this, but it's the relevant one because it's used in the Hebrew spelling of "Hamas".
Hope that makes it make more sense.
This was helpful, thanks
You're welcome.
Do you condemn KHHAAMAS?
Here's this guys original YouTube channel, he has a bunch more excellent satire on the topic: https://youtube.com/@mrtadhghickey?si=uW0CbHYK5kika4aU
Yay, it's "Taydgehae" from that great episode of Bad Hasbara! 😁❤️
(Yes, I know he's in more than one, but I started from the beginning and I'm not caught up yet)
The k makes it sound more islamic and triggers western audience's latent islamophobia
With all due respect, I don't think it's the K-sound that triggers the "western audience's latent islamophobia".
That probably has more to do with the news from England and Germany.
What news from England and Germany? The k thing (pronouncing the H in Hamas with a harsh hissing sound common in both Hebrew and Arabic but completely absent in English and other western languages) has been around at least since Oct. 7, probably much longer before that. It's a dog whistle. At best, it's in the spirit of mocking their language.
I didn't sleep well. I was trying to work out if it was like Christmas for Cars
It's probably just an alternate pronunciation.
Considering that country names are different in different languages, I don't see much of a problem with it.
If the last sentence made you go "?" Check the