Jasim is more of a Gulf name than a pan-Arab one. Though there are variants used elsewhere: Qassim, Kasem, Gasem, etc.

Very interesting that you would call these variants. I can see how Jasim is Gasem in Egypt, but Qassim?

I should have said that Qassim is the original name, the others (including Jasim) are variants. You'll find the J for Q substitution in a lot of Khaliji words.

To illustrate my point, here are some examples of the J-Q substitution: 'Ateeq becomes 'Ateej (meaning old); Qiblah becomes Jebla (meaning, well, Qiblah although in the Gulf it can also mean West).

Yeah, isn't Sharjah in the UAE al-Shaariqah in Fusha? Same/similar for the Shorjah market in Baghdad?

MH,

What Ali K said.

Jasim is just the Iraqi/Gulfi version of Qasim. Similar substitution, but as far as I know only in Iraq and Kuwait, is tch-for-k, as in "tchiifatch" for "kiifak" (how are you).

The difference between J-for-Q and Tch-for-K is that the former has made it into written Arabic - Jasim is spelled with a "jim" - and the latter hasn't - it's still spelled "kiifak" but pronounced "tchiifatch".

The Gasim comes from another pronounciation of "q", this time the Badu one. They also say gahwa coffee), gaal (he said), agulak! (i'm telling you!) and so on.

Third "off-way" to pronounce "q" is by simply substituting it with a glottal stop - done in Levantine cities and some parts of the countryside - that makes qahwah into 'ahweh etc.

Qur'an is ALWAYS pronounced with a hard "qaf", though.

--MSK*

PS: Yes, the pun was horrible, but at least this one didn't take me 2 days to get.

Thanks. So was Abdul-Karim Qassem really Abdul-Gareem Jasim, or Abdul-Kareem 'asemm or, or....?

MSK-

Yes, the tch-for-k is a very pronounced one in Gulf dialect. I believe it is a Persian influence.
However, not every K is substituted (same with the J-Q). In your example, only the second K would be substituted: Kefitch, and then only to use for the female. If you are talking to a man then it is Kefik. It is interesting how this substitution came to be used this way; in any other dialect the female/male declension would be thus: kefik/kefak.

As for the substitutions making it over to the written Arabic, I believe it is because neither tch nor g have an equivalent letter, unlike J.

Ya Ali K,

Hmmm ... I've heard "tchifitch" ... southern Iraq / Kuwait.

Very interesting idea about why "tch" and "g" have not made it into written Arabic, but J has. On the other hand, is the J also written in words other than names?

MH,

That depends on who pronounces his name. For ex, in the Levant, Gamal Abdel Nasser is pronounced "Jamal Abd an-Nasir". But yes, Qassim becomes 'Assim.

The culturalist connotations of dialects are quite interesting. For ex, as the g-for-q is so strongly associated with Bedu (& I'm talking about "living in the desert in a tent & herding sheep) here in the Levant, it's sometimes hard for me not to laugh when talking/chatting with Saudi/Khaliji friends ... And I'm fairly sure the dialectal "uncivilized-ness" is one of the reasons why Levantines are thinking of Saudi/Khalijis as having no culture etc.

--MSK*

I guess the whole world's turned maglouba or ma'loubeh, or makloubah, or......