Of all the controversies about this year’s World Cup, perhaps none is so conversationally ubiquitous as how we in the English-speaking world are supposed to pronounce the name of the country where it is being played. Traditionally, it has been something like “ka-TAHR.” This version has been mainstream in European languages since Pliny the Elder first mentioned the peninsula in the 1st Century. But there is a modern trend, particularly among Gulf expats (including my cousins, with whom I had this argument recently) to say something like “cutter.”
The latter is indeed more Arabic. It is worth noting, however, that “cutter” is the Modern Standard Arabic version — in the local dialect, it sounds more like “gi-tuhr.” So, who is right?