The pronunciation of Ra's Al Ghul?

[PwrdOn]

I like "raysh" also, it sounds better and also fits well if you imagine him as a guy who co-opted an Arab identity without having any real understanding of it.

[CatBoy]

[dodoriazarbon]

Raaz or thereabouts is how I say it. Fits my accent more and as far as I know is the "official" pronounciation, in real life if not in the DCAU. It's Raaz in the Nolan films right?

[Baggie_Saiyan]

I loved how Arrow used both.

[Se7en]

As someone with knowledge of Arabic, every time someone pronounces "Raysh" I giggle at their lack of understanding. Sorry, but it's a horrible mispronunciation.

"Raaz" is the correct usage. Raysh also changes the meaning of the word in Arabic.

[ViewtifulJC]

Raaz Al Ghul always sounds more the correct Arabic influence he's clearly coming from.

[Rod G]

Practically Word of God here

[adkal]

Here's the story: Denny O'Neill was given the name, which is actualy the name of a star in the Perseus constellation, by an editor (Julie Schwartz?) to build a character from, and together with Neal Adams, he did. Denny asked someone he knew who studied Arabic at university about the pronunciation, and got "Raysh" for an answer. However, this is wrong. In Arabic, "Ra's" is pronounced a lot more like "Rahs" than "Raysh". Apparently the student wasn't very good. Anyway, O'Neill stuck with Raysh, and that's where the confusion stems from.

He didn't get the pronunciation from an Arab speaker, he got it from his daughter, who got it from a language teacher at UCLA. Daughter is told pronunciation, goes home and tells Dad, but no one is there to confirm she pronounced it right to him. It's basically a case of 'lost in pronunciation' (but then, perhaps, the teacher pronounced things the way Sean Connery does).

As an aside (or in addition, whichever you prefer), in all the Arabic spellings of his name in the books it's been with ﺲ (the 'seen' character, which is sounded with an 's') and not with ﺶ (the 'sheen' character, which is sounded with a 'sh').

As for the Batman Beyond bit, I reckon it suffers from the 'check with Mr O'Neill and not with an Arabic speaker' issue or the 'that's how the character's creator pronounces it, and who knows better than him?' one (ignoring the fact he tried to find out the Arabic pronunciation ).

[doolittle]

Well, O'Neill clearly wanted the "proper" Arabic pronunciation for the name, he just got it wrong. Pronouncing it "Raysh" would be like a character called "Head of the Demon" insisting on pronouncing it "Head of the Demooohn" or something like that.

Reading this thread hasn't changed how I pronounce Ra's, but I'm totally switching to Demooohn.

[TheNewFiftyForum]

Reading this thread hasn't changed how I pronounce Ra's, but I'm totally switching to Demooohn.

It's you and Benicio! Probably.

[DamianThomas]

It was settled in "Batman Beyond." Its "Ray-ssh"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TULYXGYz02c

[Carabas]

It was settled in "Batman Beyond." Its "Ray-ssh"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TULYXGYz02c

It was resettled in Arrow, where it was "however you feel it is supposed to be pronounced".

[darkseidpwns]

Here's the story: Denny O'Neill was given the name, which is actualy the name of a star in the Perseus constellation, by an editor (Julie Schwartz?) to build a character from, and together with Neal Adams, he did. Denny asked someone he knew who studied Arabic at university about the pronunciation, and got "Raysh" for an answer. However, this is wrong. In Arabic, "Ra's" is pronounced a lot more like "Rahs" than "Raysh". Apparently the student wasn't very good. Anyway, O'Neill stuck with Raysh, and that's where the confusion stems from.

This,the Nolan pronunciation is correct. The other one is just a blatant refusal to rectify a mistake because it sounds cool.

[thwhtGuardian]

This,the Nolan pronunciation is correct. The other one is just a blatant refusal to rectify a mistake because it sounds cool.

It really isn't as the same word is pronounced Raysh in Hebrew and Sumerian and since he was a nomad from an unknown tribe in a land contested by asian warlords then the proper Arabic pronunciation need not be true for the story.

[darkseidpwns]

It really isn't as the same word is pronounced Raysh in Hebrew and Sumerian and since he was a nomad from an unknown tribe in a land contested by asian warlords then the proper Arabic pronunciation need not be true for the story.

As far as backstory is concerned that was obviously an attempt to cover the mistake,2 decades after his creation. If his name is supposed to translate to head of the demon (which it is) then only the Nolan version is correct. I'm not going to pretend to be a expert in linguistics or anthropology but somehow I doubt half his name is supposed to be Sumerian and half Arabic,the continuity might provide an excuse for it but the writer made a simple mistake and based on another users post here admitted to it. So like I said it was intended to be Raas or Rahz but due to a mistake it became Raysh and ever since they've been trying to make excuses instead of just rectifying it.