/
1x
Advertisement
Proudly Canadian, obsessively Toronto. Subscribe to Toronto Life!
City News

Media outlets just can’t seem to agree on how to spell “Gadhafi” (“Gaddafi”? “Gaddafi”? “Qadhafi”?)

By John Michael McGrath
Copy link
The man in question a on poster in Tripoli (Image: Gary Denham)
A poster of the man in question on a wall in Tripoli (Image: Gary Denham)

This is surely the least important aspect of what is happening in Libya, but every time there’s an Arabic name in the news, we’re amazed at how little agreement there is between English transliterations on the spelling. For the record—well, according to Wikipedia—the current leader of Libya’s name is معمر القذافي. It’s when that name gets turned in to something printable with the Roman alphabet that things get messy. A quick scan of local media gets us the following:

Moammar Gadhafi: Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, CBC Muammar Gaddafi: National Post, Toronto Sun Moammar Gaddafi: NOW

And this just begins to scratch the surface of the number of ways the Libyan leader’s name can be spelled. None of these sources spell Gadhafi with a “q,” even though some sources say that’s the most precise spelling. (We’re doing our part for national unity by totally ignoring French-language media.) According to ABC News, there are 112 of them. The difficulty in any transliteration gets even more complex with the differences between Arabic dialects.

Again, this is not the most important part of this story right now. And it took centuries for English to standardize its spelling—something that’s still not complete. So maybe we’ll just continue to note these things to ourselves until Americans and Brits agree on how to spell “aluminum.”

• How Many Different Ways Can You Spell ‘Gaddafi’? [ABC News]

NEVER MISS A TORONTO LIFE STORY

Sign up for This City, our free newsletter about everything that matters right now in Toronto politics, sports, business, culture, society and more.

By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.
You may unsubscribe at any time.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Big Stories

Dancing Queens: Patrons, staff and performers share their wildest memories of Crews and Tangos, Toronto’s most storied drag bar
Deep Dives

Dancing Queens: Patrons, staff and performers share their wildest memories of Crews and Tangos, Toronto’s most storied drag bar

Inside the Latest Issue

Inside the Latest Issue

The April issue of Toronto Life features the anatomy of a Bay Street fiasco at RBC. Plus, our obsessive coverage of everything that matters now in the city.