Pronunciation "Ra's al-Ghul"

So eversince Batman Begins a certain pronunciation of "Ra's al-Ghul" has pretty much cemented itself ("Reysh al-Gool") but this is in fact far from how the actual sentence "Head of the demon/ghoul" is pronounced in Arabic; "Rah'iss al-Hrul"(Hr= like how you say J as in José or Juan in Spanish). Now naturally Arabs/other Semitic-speaking people who read Batman will probably know how to pronounce it but how do you guys say it personally?

Kinda unnecessary question... but Ra's is an Arab after all & given his significance maybe some "justice" is in place lol. No, I am not Arabic myself if anyone wonders.

@dwightspitz:

Yeah, it's "ray-shh" according to TAS so it's "ray-shh" to me.

I always just called him "Rozz."

when I was younger I pronounced it Roz al gool, I admit after Batman Begins I started saying Raysh al gool

Raish.

It's "ray-shh" from what I have know about the man.

"Roz" was how it was pronounced in Batman Begins. Did Begins turn you off from saying it that way?

I don't know about letting an American TV-show dictate how a name in a completely foreign language sounds. Ra's is Arab & so is his name so there's really no legit reason to say anything other than "Rah'iss al-Hroul". Admittedly I do say "Reysh" a lot because yeah, otherwise no one knows how you're talking about lol.

Ra's al-Ghul is the comic version of "tomayto-tomahto"

lol yeah thats true

sorry you are correct, I meant after the Arkham video games lol

The only place I heard it said Roz was in Batman Begins. A batman beyond episode cleared it up to be Raysh not Roz, and that came out before Begins so I guess Nolan wanted his own spin on it. I usually say Raysh because I'm pretty sure that's correct, but I like Roz too

I think they called him Raz in BB.

TAS got it wrong,Nolan did it right.

It's pronounced "Raz" in comics?

@wolverine08: well you can't hear them talk in comics lol. @entropy_aegis: How can you tell? Batman Beyond said it was Raysh not Roz or Raz.

Okay time to finally clear this up. I speak Arabic and I tell you "Raysh" is a wrong pronunciation, at least in conventional Arabic. "Raz" from Batman Begins is the closest to the correct pronunciation but even that isn't 100% correct. It's actually "Ra ass" Al Ghul. To make it simpler, the "a's" part of "Ra's", is pronounced the same way "S" is pronounced in English. So it's acutally "Ra "S"". As for "Al Ghul, it can be pronounced in several ways. First of all, "Al" can be "El", it depends on the accent but works both ways. Ghul is not "Gul", you don't pronounce the "G". The "Gh" pronounced the same way it is pronounced in french,or let's say the "classy" way you pronounce "r" in french. It's pronounced as "Ghoul", the same way it is pronounced in Batman Begins by Batman and Ra's himself. However, when Scarecrow says the name he pronounces it wrong as "Gul". In Lebanese accent, "Ra's" is pronounced as "Rass", so it's "Rass El Ghoul'.

So the correct pronunciation is either "Rass Al/El Ghoul" or "Ra"S"Al Ghoul".

@anjales: Cool. Btw you said the G is silent so its pronounced either ul or oul?

@rustyroy yeah kinda, I mean you don't pronounce it, but when combined with the "H" you get a whole new pronunciation..it's like..gaahh it's so hard to explain this stuff like this. The thing is the "gh" pronunciation doesn't exist in the English language, so it's pronounced as G. In French, "gh" gives you a new pronunciation where you don't pronounce neither letters, and instead you get a new one. French speakers will know what I'm talking about. In the Arabic language, "gh" is its own letter it's called "ghayne" or "غ". I guess "Goul" is the closest thing English speakers can get to the actual pronunciation. To answer your question, it's pronounced "Goul" not "Gul". In the Nolan trilogy they got that part right (except when Crane says :P)

I have heard

RAYS AL GHOUL

RAHZ Al Ghoul ( like terry )

RACE Al Ghoul

RACHE AL Ghoul ( Like batman beyond )

Great Answer.

Raysh. According to TAS and Arkham Games which are my quintessential Batmans so that's how I say it and that's the only correct way :P

I'm still going to end up saying Raz like in the Nolan films lol

@anjales: yea but the creators say reysh or raysh so that is technically correct plus since he took that name centuries ago and it's a fictional universe we can say that in the dcu it was originally raysh centuries ago but as time went own it changed in Arabic. Languages change the way they pronounce words all the time.

It translates to Head of the Demon,the other one is feather of the demon...you choose.

In Arabic, it would be pronounced the way it was heard on Arrow and in the Batman movies.

At a Neal Adams signing, he said it's pronounced "Rahz, not Raysh". He did create the character, so he's probably the best source.

Raish but I say Rahz when talking about comics to my ignorant (when it comes to comics) friends.

@redleader1 Two things. First of all, the writers of the animated series are Not the creators. It is TAS that popularized the pronunciation "Raysh". Like I said in my earlier comment, because of the inability of english speakers to do the correct pronunciation, TAS people just gave the name their own Spin on it. Secondly the guy who made the character, Neil Adams, said that the correct pronunciation is Raz not Raysh, and like I said in the previous comment, Raz is the closest to the correct pronunciation. However, the point of this thread was to ask what is the true correct pronunciation, and I answered it, but at the end of the day, you're the one reading the comics, and you can pronounce whoever you like, but this is language, even in a fictional story, there are correct and wrong ways to say words.

raz al gool. reysh is stupid and smuggy.

I prefer Raz as well. People can pronounce it in 2 ways just like they can with the word tomato. Comics don't convey sound so you can't say it has to be pronounced one way or the other because of the comics.

@anjales: actually I thought Denny o'neil created ras and I've always heard that he says ras. Belive me I know the TAS writers did not make ras but tones of people say ras and like you said its however you specifically read it. Hence my point if it can be anything at all but you the reader are the one well reading so its up to you and in universe there is not technically a politically correct way to say it. Yet outside of comics I guess we should find a perfect way to say things.

This is kinda like how some books are in the universe kinda changed to the readers language from say republic basic (star wars) or the hobbit language (Tolkiens works).

@dud317: well Neal is the artist so Denny would be the best person to ask seeing as he actually wrote up the character primarily.

The pronunciation from the comics and DCAU cartoons is mostly nonsense. The name as read would be pronounced as it is in the Nolan films, and as it would be in our world.

The reason for the alternate pronunciation is apparently the tribe Ra's was part of pronounced his name slightly differently, and they are no longer around. Whatever.

To me, both are correct. In the comics and cartoons, the "raysh" pronunciation should be used. In the more grounded adaptations, the Nolan pronunciation should be used. At least, that makes sense to me.

Julius Schwartz came up with the name for Ra's al Ghul, not Neal Adams. I'd bet that one knew how to properly pronounce the name.

It's Raysh though.

Racer cool.

I have got into the habit of saying Raysh, might have to change that though....

If the actual creators of the name and character intended it to be pronounced as Raysh, then it should be pronounced as Raysh.

Problem is, I've seen nothing as of yet indicating that this is how the creators intended it.

Agreed.

@redleader1: I do stand corrected as they were co-creators. However, I don't really have Denny on speed dial, so I went with the next best source.

@dud317: how awesome would it be to have Denny o'neil on speed dial.

Raysh for me.... I can't bear it when people say raz