Guttural R
Many Jewish immigrants to Israel spoke a variety of Arabic in their countries of origin and pronounced the Hebrew rhotic as an alveolar tap , similar to Arabic '. Gradually, many of them began pronouncing their Hebrew rhotic as a voiced uvular fricative , a sound similar or (depending on the Arabic dialect) identical to Arabic '. However, in modern Sephardic and Mizrahi poetry and folk music an alveolar rhotic continues to be used.
Middle East
Perhaps because of the influence of the Western press, the Arabic equivalent of "Middle East" (Arabic: الشرق الأوسط "ash-Sharq al-Awsaṭ") has become standard usage in the mainstream Arabic press, comprising the same meaning as the term "Middle East" in North American and Western European usage. The designation, "Mashriq", also from the Arabic root for "East", also denotes a variously defined region around the Levant, the eastern part of the Arabic-speaking world (as opposed to the "Maghreb", the western part). Even though the term originated in the West, apart from Arabic, other languages of countries of the Middle East also use a translation of it. The Persian equivalent for Middle East is خاورمیانه ("Khāvar-e miyāneh"), the Hebrew is המזרח התיכון ("hamizrach hatikhon") and the Turkish is Orta Doğu.