Qaddafi's reading list

"Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi is an "avid consumer of television and print media" who made a top Libyan diplomat read and summarize well-known current events books, according to an American diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks. ..."

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20036010-503543.html

Muammar Qaddafi: wonder if anyone's ever done that touchstone before.

:D

I think you spelled it wrong. ;)

There's been quite a bit of talk on how to properly anglicize his name, esp. as all the news outlets have their own ways of spelling it.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/2011/0222/Gaddafi-Kadafi-Qaddafi-What-s-the-corre...

>4 benjclark:.

I know. That was the joke.

Hence the wink! *facepalm* Sorry. Had been reading in a humorless forum before seeing your comment.

No worries. I suppose you could argue that there are so many variations on the orthography, you can't possibly spell it wrong!

I think it was 1990 when the AP issued its "Moammar Gadhafi" ruling. It was based on a letter the colonel sent to some American schoolchildren, and that was how he spelled his name under his signature. British news outlets seem to have opted for "Gaddafi."

There's an old Slate article here about the problems with transliterating names from the Arabic alphabet. The options for the Libyan leader's name: Moammar/Muammar Gadaffi/Gaddafi/Gathafi/Kadafi/Kaddafi/Khadafy/Qadhafi/Qathafi ... and those are just the leading contenders.

One point (IIRC) is that the Arabic letter qaf (romanized as Q) is a guttural consonant in classical Arabic, but pronounced more like a G in Libyan dialect. So some transliterations favor the traditional values of Arabic letters; others side with the sounds of the local dialect.