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Salaam, Tony! I don't thnik I have all answers you need, I rather have some questions in return. habarakhe4 eskriviw: > Could someone examine these names and help me with those marked > with '?' ? > > Muslim south America Al-Wiraniyya/Watan al-Gharb Do your Muslim conquerers all speak Arabic, or is it just a cultural language (cf. modern Iran)? The word |wat.an| does not mean "country". It means "motherland". It is better to use the word |qut.r| for a larger piece of land, and |balad| for a smaller one (or just region). > Rio de la Plata Nahr al-Fad.d.a > La Plata M. al-Fad.d.a > Argentina Watan al-Fad.d.a From what I see, you are just giving calques. What are the reasons for that? Mere mnemonics? What dialect is the spelling based on? Standard is |fid.d.a|, supported also by a Farsi borrowing: |fezze| - first /e/ always corresponds to short Arabic /i/. > Rio Grand do Sul Nahr al-Kibir al-Kibli nahr ul-kabi:r (wa:di l-kabi:r) uj-janu:bi: qibla merely mean "direction to Mecca", which is *not* south here. > São Paulo M. al-Hasan Oho! How those Shi`a boys get to America? Totally impossible. The same remarks concern the skipped part. Calques may seem strange. Check the spelling. In general, quite a cool stuff. In my Ajami ATL, America is conquered by Muslims too, but speaking an Arabo-Romance language "Adjamiya" - an equivalent of Spanish and Portuguese *here*. Bechairo y tale bueno, (lit. =with [desires of] luck and good lucky star), -- Yitzik