Is it Moammar Khaddafy? Muamar Qadhafi? Muammar Gadhafi? Why can’t anyone spell that dead dictator’s name correctly, or at least consistently?
There is a good reason why no one seems to get it right. There are just too many transliterative landmines in the short name that looks like this in Arabic:
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مُعَمَّر القَذَّافِي
The first name (on the right) is rather cut and dried: “Mu’ammar.” This should be uncontroversial, because here is no “O” in Arabic. But then, in 1986, the deceased dictator actually did spell his name in out Roman script with an “O,” which is why the AP prefers “Moammar.”
This AP-preferred method also omits the next letter (“ayn”) — the one symbolized by the apostrophe — but it’s a letter that English speakers can’t pronounce anyway. (It’s the very first part of the sound you make when you clear your throat, or vomit. Remember that when you refer to al Qa’ida).
The dictator’s first name should always be spelled with two M’s in the middle. That’s what the squiggle (“shadda”) above the second to last letter means — double up. No Mu’amars need apply.
The last name is a lot trickier, and people have done a lot of goofy things with it. First of all, never use “Kh” — that’s just wrong. There is no grainy, aspirated K sound — that’s a different Arabic letter.
AP drops the “Al” at the beginning of his last name, which makes sense, since we only use “the” that way in English for Kermit the Frog or Conan the Barbarian.
So the letter that begins his name is “qaf” (the one that looks like Mr. Bill, with his mouth wide open). It is traditionally transliterated to the Roman alphabet as “q,” not because it sounds like a “Q” but because it doesn’t sound like any other letter we have. For some reason, people have begun transliterating and/or pronouncing it as a “g,” (as when they refer to the small nation of Qatar or “Gutter”). In standard Arabic, it sounds more like a hard “C” that’s formed in the back of your throat — again, something we don’t have in English.
But in Libya, AP reports, they often do pronounce it like a “G.” Unfortunately, this can be slightly confusing, since Egyptians pronounce the Arabic letter “j” like a hard “g,” as in Kareem Abdul Gabar, and about one-third of Arabic speakers are Egyptians. (Incidentally, most Lebanese don’t pronounce “qaf” at all. If we could just call him “Addhafi,” it would save editors at least a bit of trouble.)
That might all sound complicated, but then comes the worst part: The “dd” or “dh.” It’s a letter that sounds like our “th” — not the one in “thick” or “theft,” but the voiced one in “that” or “them.” It’s usually transliterated as lower-case “dh.” Simple, right? But then there’s a squiggle above this letter, so you’re supposed to double it up. How do you write something in Roman letters that makes that “dh” sound twice in a row? “Qadhdhafi” is just horrific. “Qaddhafi” might be slightly better, but it’s rarely used.
After the double-dh, there’s a long-A sound (which is of course what we call short-A, only pronounced for a slightly longer period of time: “-dhaafi”).
Use just one “f,” not two. Probably best to end it with an “i,” although “y” is just as good. The final letter (the one with the two dots below) is used as both their long-e vowel and as the consonant “y.”
I’m guessing that’s more than you ever wanted to read about Arabic transliteration. It’s probably best just to throw your hands up in the air and use the AP style, since it’s the one the late Libyan leader used. But there’s only one correct way to spell the dead Libyan dictator’s name, and here it is:
مُعَمَّر القَذَّافِي
