It was a surprise to find an abundance of Bateekh, Watermelon, grown in the Sahara Desert, as it was to learn from Lane that fat camels are called Ibl Batikhah, Watermelony. But he insists that the Egyptian vowelization that I learned in the classroom and used in everyday speech, Bateekh, is “vulgar and incorrect…as expressly stated in law books”. Instead, he writes, it should be voiced as Biteekh. KhairAllah never called me vulgar and lawless because of my mispronunciations, to my knowledge.
©David Melody