How's that spelled?
 

The name of the militant group in southern Lebanon has been spelled in a variety of ways on this board. How do you spell it, and why do you spell it that way?

Hezbollah, because I saw it spelled that way somewhere.

its spellt a variety of ways....

'terrorist group'
'freedom fighter'
'legitimate political party within the Lebbanese Democratic state'
'people who don't like Israel and are partial to firing rockets at said state'
'anyone north of the Israeli border & therefore fair game for the IDF'


take your pick....

I spell it, on purpose,

Hisballah

Hisb = party

Allah = (of) god

Hezbollah is the accepted spelling, I think.

Hezbollah because that's how it's meant to be spelled apparently.

I wonder if it matters--aren't we just spelling these terms phonetically, using our alphabet?

yeah, really it's spelled scribblescribblecurlicuescribbleswirldotswirlscribble.

The Israeli newspaper Emet spells it Hizb'Allah.

Interesting to read the differing opinions of Western concern (or, lack thereof) about the conflict. According to an online Lebanese paper (the Daily Star) the West doesn't care about them and we are not doing enough and the online Israeli paper, Emet, says pretty much the same thing: we don't care and we're not doing enough. The world really IS nothing but junior high school.

How's that spelled?
 

Spelt.

Actually, the answer to "how's that spelled?" is T-H-A-T. :rolleyes:

You forgot the umlat over the swirl!:p

As BlueCuracao said, we are phonetically spelling a word from another language. Arabic has a different alphabet and there are sounds in Arabic that English and other European languages simply don't have. How it is translated into English depends on the translator and their dialect.

Brianna probably posted the most accurate translation, Hizb'Allah, or Party of God. The ' often denotes the word "of".

I took some Arabic language classes when I was in Saudi Arabia, both oral and written. I was taught Classical Arabic as opposed to one of the many dialects used in Jordan, Lebanan, Egypt or another of the nearby Middle Eastern countries. For example, Muhamed, Mahammed, Muhammad, Mahamad are all translations of the very same name.

Stormie

According to dictionary.com, spelled and spelt can mean the same thing and are both correct.

Perhaps it isn't worth discussing anyway.

Its kinda like worst - worse and spoiled - spoilt.

Although, I find posting on this board I would use the *worse* and *spoiled* option, whereas on Aussie boards I use *spoilt* and *worst*.

But worse and worst are two different meanings... arent they? bad : worse : worst :: good : better : best...?