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Even More Mental Floss |
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28) Transliteration is the process of writing out
phonetically in one alphabet the sound of a word or proper noun from another alphabet.
We English speakers, for example, transliterate names from the Cyrillic or
Arabic or Hebrew or Greek alphabets into the Roman alphabet so that we can
pronounce them. Why, then, are several transliterated names from Arabic
written with a Q not being followed by a U, in violation of English rules?
How is one supposed to pronounce Qatar, for example? 37) When we
are told that a river is N feet above flood stage, I take that to mean that
if N foot walls were erected all along the banks of the river, it would no
longer flood. How is this number
N determined? 38) When
a new diagnostic test is being developed for a new disease, how do we know if
it is accurate? If we don’t
know the true diagnosis, how can we say that the test results are correct or
not? |
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