English Spelling of the Glottal Stop and Voiced Pharyngeal Fricative in Arabic Personal Names by Educated Arabs on Facebook

A sample of 560 Arab Facebook users consisting students, faculty, schoolteachers, and other professionals with different proficiency levels in English was selected. The study analyzed how Arabic personal names on to find out the glottal stop (hamza) [ʔ] and/or voiced pharyngeal fricative [ʕ] initial, medial final positions, short long vowels before after them are spelled; whether there variations their spelling; causes spelling variations, strategies used. Results showed that 63% have an initial hamza; 10% a 24% hamza. 65% one variant 29% two variants. Names highest occurrences Eman (26); Ibrahim (18); Alaa & Ismail (17) each; Asma (16). In some is cluster 2-3 (Waeel, Ismaiel, Ismaeel, Ismaeil, Doaa Duaa). all substituted by vowel as this phoneme/grapheme does not exist English. Thus both represented pronounced same 64.5% [ʕ], 30% 5% [ʕ]. 85% 13.5% اسماعيل has number variants (Esmail/Ismail, Ismael, Esmaiel/Ismaeil, Ismaeel) because ع preceded followed vowels. Some were spelled single -a or double -aa. Asma, Wafa, Haifa Sana, deleted matches name local dialect. Abduh, Amro Enayah Waed, transferred system (Menem, Yakoub, Gomma) retained facilitate pronunciation. An apostrophe added Ro’aa, Asma’a split cluster. gives recommendations help EFL students spell phonemes/graphemes do accurately speakers pronounce version correctly.