pronunciation - Why there is an "h" in proper names like Afghanistan, Baghdad and Lamborghini?


An "h" may be used to prevent the "g" from being soft, as in spaghetti, but there is no need for an "h" in the mentioned proper names.



Answer



In Lamborghini, there is actually a need for the h because it would otherwise be pronounced with a soft g. As for the other two, I think that gh represents a sound that doesn't exist in English (similar to German or French r sound). So it's sort of a transliteration of the native name into English. Just like in the name Khrushchev, for example, where kh represents the Russian х (sounds like the German ch).


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