Talk:Nahiyah

'Nahiyeh' should redirect here

See discussion start at Nahiyeh. Conflict: Ottoman/Arabic term is primary meaning and pls contribute there. Arminden (talk) 04:26, 29 August 2024 (UTC)

Hi Shhhnotsoloud, did you read this? Please address the issues from the talk-pages before going ahead and boldly reverting big style :) Arminden (talk) 17:43, 30 November 2024 (UTC)

Final letter in Arabic

The lead states:

Arabic: نَاحِيَة [ˈnaːħijah]

But the final letter here, ة, is a taw and reads like a t, so it indicates something like nahiyat. In a phrase, nouns may receive an addit. final t that connects with the following article, but not when the noun stands by itself, such as here. Am I wrong and there in an easy explanation for it? Arminden (talk) 15:17, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

This would have implications on whether the Arabic and Persian spellings really differ in their last letter, and further in the separation of the two on 2 distinct enWiki pages. Arminden (talk) 15:19, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

Requested move 29 March 2026

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: no consensus. (closed by non-admin page mover) Jeffrey34555 (talk) 17:55, 11 April 2026 (UTC)

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Nahiyah → NahiyaNahiya – Per WP:COMMONNAME: nahiya is the dominant spelling in English (like madrasa, Kaaba, etc.)

See this Ngram (singular) and this one (plural).

Note that the final letter ة is never pronounced as /h/ in Arabic. ~2026-19404-00 (talk) 06:21, 29 March 2026 (UTC) — Relisting. TarnishedPath^talk 07:42, 6 April 2026 (UTC)

Against. The traditional way of spelling final a's which shouldn't be read as ay, is -ah (and that h is obviously mute). Knowing that is part of English-language literacy. Most people on the other hand, don't understand diacritics, especially since their meaning varies from language to language: they're made for philologists. That rules out ā and 'a or a' as common spelling. Nahiyah and other Ottoman admin. terms are more likely to be encountered in English in historical contexts (Ottoman Empire). When in a modern context, the nahiya spelling is fine, but on Wiki history has a strong presence - and redirects are a useful and sufficient tool. Arminden (talk) 08:40, 29 March 2026 (UTC)

It is not at all “obvious” that the final ⟨h⟩ in “-ah” corresponds to a silent sound in Arabic. Many editors and readers mistakenly assume it represents a pronounced [h] – as in the IPA which you quoted above – which is why we repeatedly see IPA transcriptions of Arabic words on Wikipedia incorrectly ending with [h]. So the spelling “-ah” is not as transparent as you suggest.

Moreover, the “-ah” spelling has never been universal in English. Even in older and scholarly usage, both “-a” and “-ah” have coexisted, and many well-established loanwords from Arabic have long been spelled with final “-a” in English (e.g., madrasa, Kaaba, zawiya, Mecca, Medina, sharia, Fatima, Aisha, mahkama, Uthmaniyya, fitna, Mu'awiya, tariqa, Shia – all of which are extensively mentioned in history…). You even created one of these articles (with misspellings in the main word and highly interpretative statements).

Your argument that “‘-ah’ prevents an /eɪ/ reading” is also incorrect: final “-a” is not typically read as /eɪ/ in English borrowings from other languages (e.g. sofa, pizza, yoga, coda…).

If anything, “-ah” introduces ambiguity in pronunciation rather than reducing it. Given that, and given the evidence of broader English usage, “nahiya” better satisfies WP:COMMONNAME. “Nahiyah” can be retained as a redirect. ~2026-19604-02 (talk) 15:04, 29 March 2026 (UTC)

Note: WikiProject Former countries, WikiProject Syria, and WikiProject Ottoman Empire have been notified of this discussion. TarnishedPath^talk 07:43, 6 April 2026 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.