In reply to:
doesn't the pronunciation of quasi 'Rh' rather than 'Gh' largely it depend on which Arab speaking place your from, or rather which dialect you speak
Yes, of course, but it seems that the Alawites (who are largely Syrian) pronounce the Rh as do the Egyptians (as Mr. Ghali is Egyptian...).
Perhaps that's not such a great distance today, but in the past, of course, it was... and the Alawites are not as wide-spread south of that village in northern Israel as the Egyptians have been and still are - of course, it is true that ancient Canaan was a province of ancient Egypt before the Israelites arrived... and Syria, long before being a distinct political entity as it is today, was a term used to identify the entire area (as in Levant or even Middle East but not to be confused with ASSYRIA)... hence the concept of "Greater Syria"... still, I doubt that any of the ancient Egyptian 'dialect' would have remained in the ancient Syrian dialect after this long!
As well, the Arabic language spoken on the streets and in the suks of the current Arab world, is NOT the same as the Arabic of the Koran and other literary works - thus, the differences between the Arabic spoken by your Moroccan friend and your Syrian friend - though when they read the Koran or pray the standard prayers, I suspect they sound the same (perhaps with a slightly different twang here or there).
Whoops, sorry - here I go again - but it is interesting, don't ya think, to compare the ancient to the modern and the regional to the bigger picture???
Shoshannah
