Wallace Stevens's famous poem provided thirteen ways of looking at a blackbird. With Libya's Muamar Qaddafhi - who on September 1 celebrated 36 glorious years in power - we have 73 ways. Or rather, at least 73 spellings. That's more than 2 spellings for every year the Colonel has rule over Libya.
For the complete list of Qaddafi names (compiled by the US Library of Congress, no less), see the wikipedia. Here are a few:
- Gadafi, Muammar
- Gaddafi, Moamar
- Gadhafi, Mo'ammar
- Gathafi, Muammar
- Ghadafi, Muammar
- Ghaddafi, Muammar
- Ghaddafy, Muammar
- Gheddafi, Muammar
- Gheddafi, Muhammar
- Kadaffi, Momar
As the Straight Dope notes:
The basic problem here is that (1) there is no generally accepted authority for romanizing Arabic names, and (2) the Mummer's name contains several sounds that have no exact equivalent in English. In standard Arabic, the initial consonant qaf is pronounced like a throaty k, midway between the English k and the German ch, as in Bach. The second consonant, dhal--two dhals, actually--is pronounced like a double dh, which is similar to English th, only with the tongue pulled back a bit behind the teeth. Regional pronunciation differences further complicate matters. Libyans tend to pronounce qaf like a hard g, which has inspired a whole different set of spellings.
In most cases where there is doubt about how to spell somebody's name, the usual journalistic practice is to accept the preference of the namee. For many years, however, the Mummer was too busy promoting global chaos to devote much time to the niceties of orthography. That changed in May, 1986, when he responded to a letter from some second-graders at Maxfield Magnet School in St. Paul, Minnesota. The colonel signed the letter in Arabic script, beneath which was typed "Moammar El-Gadhafi." This was the first known indication of his own feelings on the subject...
Meanwhile, 80% of Libyans have grown up knowing only the Mummer's rule. This is, after all, the man who took power during Richard Nixon's first term.
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