Batman Beyond: "Out of the Past" ...Ra's, Not Raz.

[mmalovr57]

to say that i approve of this video is understated

[COMICFILMEXPERT]

Fuck all the linguist nonsense.

I'll break it down for you.

Dennis O'Neill created Ra's Al Ghul. He pronounces it 'Raysh.'

"Batman: The Animated Series" is better than "Batman Begins." They used 'Raysh.'

Do I give a damn about linguistic accuracy? Fuck no. 'Raysh' is what Batman fans grew up on.

It's 'Raysh.'

End of discussion.

[lookielouE1705]

@COMICFILMEXPERT Intentional fallacy. When an author mispronounces a phrase he doesn't change its pronunciation. Dennis O'Neill has no more authority to define the pronunciation as "Raysh" than Frank Miller would have had to mispronounce "dark" as "dork" in "The Dark Knight," had he not known how the word "dark" is actually pronounced.

And it should go without saying that it doesn't matter which series used what pronunciation, or what fans grew up on, or what you give a damn about.

[TheJokezOnYou]

I am sure every linguist cringed at this.

[DktorChoas]

something no one ever told nolan

[EdwardNygma1]

@DktorChoas lol.

[SRagy]

I'm a native Arabic speaker and can verify that the Arabic from which it is derived, is closer in pronunciation to raz than raysh.

To be more accurate though, you need a glottal stop, which is what an apostrophe often denotes in transliteration from Arabic. Furthermore, it's not a 'z' sound at the end, but rather an 's' sound.

[HeadBangerAust]

God damn it! It's Raz! Raz Al Ghul is Arabic for Head Of The Demon and my best pal is Muslim and he says that what it means and that it's pronounced Raz like in Batman Begins

[EdwardNygma1]

@HeadBangerAust I knew it!

[codafett]

I like saying Raj instead of Rage

[LordMortis315]

Someone send this to Christopher Nolan.

[SolidThugKnuckles]

I should also add that Begins (and I believe some of the episodes of the DCAU cartoons that go back and forth between the "Raysh" and "Raz" pronunciations actually came the closest to the correct pronunciation.

In Arabic of course, Ra's al Ghul's name would be translated as such:

Ra's - head

al - of the

Ghul - demon or ghul

=

Ra's al Ghul - "Head of the Demon" or "Of the Demon's Head"

[SolidThugKnuckles]

Sorry, but the pronunciation of "Ra's" as "Raysh" is wrong. It's pronounced like "ruh-ssss (roll the "s")/ross." I speak Arabic, and the way that they're trying to pronounce "Ra's" as "Raysh" makes it seem like that they're pronouncing it like a distorted version of the Arabic word for "reed."

[goniloc]

@SolidThugKnuckles my arabic friend always says raysh

[SolidThugKnuckles]

@goniloc He doesn't know Arabic very well then.

[goniloc]

@SolidThugKnuckles He lived in an arabic country for most of his life

[SolidThugKnuckles]

@goniloc I'm not sure what specific dialect your friend speaks, but doing even further research, pronouncing "ra's" like "raysh" is more Hebrew than Arabic. The 20th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, "resh," is pronounced that way, which is most likely why the animated series chose that easier Hebrew pronunciation over the Arabic pronunciation. If "ra's" was going to pronounced like "raysh," common sense would dictate that it would be written with "sh" at the end rather than "s."

[goniloc]

@SolidThugKnuckles which is why she's explaining the proper pronounciation in the video

[SolidThugKnuckles]

@goniloc Nah, it's not the proper pronunciation; it's just easier. Being that Ra's is an Arabic-based character, the Arabic pronunciation I mentioned is the correct pronunciation.