You Say Qaddafi, I Say Gadhafi…
Posted by Patrick in Language, News & Media
It’s a good thing that the murdered dictator of Libya will be buried in a secret location somewhere in the desert. There’s a good chance that will mean there’ll be no need for a headstone, so there’ll be no need to argue over the spelling of his name.
Of course, I’m talking about Moammar Gaddafi. Or Muammar Qaddafi. Or Moamar El Kadhafi.
However you choose to spell the name — and ABC News ran a list of 112 different ways his name has been spelled over the years — it’s the same guy.
And even after he was gunned down last week, there’s still no consensus on how his name should be spelled.
The problem comes from the fact that it’s just difficult to translate an Arabic pronunciation into a proper English spelling. Despite the fact that they had 42 years, from the time he took control of Libya to his death last week, the major media just couldn’t come to an agreement on how to handle his name.
The Associated Press, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and PBS spelled his name as “Moammar Gadhafi.” ABC News spells it Moammar Gaddafi. Time, Newsweek, Reuters, BBC News and the English Al-Jazeera preferred “Muammar Gaddafi.” CBS News and The Christian Science Monitor prefer “Muammar Qaddafi.”
Prior to 1986, The AP and others spelled his last name as “Khadafy,” based on the advice of Middle East experts.
But then the dictator sent letters to Minnesota schoolchildren, signed in Arabic over his typed name: “Colonel Moammar El-Gadhafi.”
As to why he sent letters to American schoolchildren, that’s anyone’s guess. Ironically, even in reporting the letters from the dictator, the AP ran with this headline: “Second-Graders Get Letter From Khadafy.”
But the point is, he did sign his name. I don’t know about anyone else, but that should have done it. If that’s how he spelled the romanized version of his name, that ought to have been enough.
After all, you’d think he, of all people, would know.
For whatever reason, that wasn’t enough, and the constant disagreement over his name continued for 25 years as his reputation went from arrogant to flamboyant to, at times, crazy.
Having the entire planet spell my name wrong for 25 years are more would certainly be enough to drive me crazy if I were him.
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How curious - I always knew it as Moammar Khadhafi, so I guess you are right. But you are also correct that there is unlikely to be a headstone... for a very long time. I like what Mr. Holloway wrote. Maybe we should just call you Padrig - the Gaelic version of your name!
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