Is it Moammar Khadafy (The print version of The Denver Post)? Moammar Gadhafi (Denver Post Online and The Associated Press)? Muammar el-Qadaffi (The New York Times)? Or even Muammar Abu Minyar al-Qadhafi (U.S. CIA)? All are correct. Or, more precisely, none is correct.
The Libyan dictator’s name is an Arabic word. Most English-language newspapers have no way of printing the Arabic letters that make up Khadafy’s name (and most readers, editors and reporters would not understand them anyway). So different news and government organizations have arrived at different phonetic spellings of the name using our alphabet.
To quote The Denver Post’s stylebook, the language guide intended to standardize spellings and usage for the newspaper:
“In general, use an English spelling that approximates the way a name sounds in Arabic. If an individual has a preferred spelling in English, use that. If usage has established a particular spelling, use that.”
Unfortunately, that doesn’t offer much clarity. Khadafy has never expressed a preference for how the Western press spells his name. Beyond that, many Arabic letters just don’t translate well to English. The Arabic consonant for “Kh” is throaty and can also be interpreted as “Qa,” “Gh” or “Ka.”
Usage has not established consensus on a single spelling. The Denver Post spelling is shared by The Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle and some other large, regional daily newspapers.
This article originally appeared in the print editon of The Denver Post on February 26, 2011.
