Thanks to Wikipedia

We were surfing through one of our favorite blogs Talking Points Memo, and found a blurb about the odd, bewildering leader of Libya.

But the article wasn’t about this one time enemy of the USA…

This was about the odd, bewildering spelling of his name.

“Translators have been struggling for years with how to spell the name of  Muammar al-Gaddafi for English speakers.

It’s the “Gaddafi” bit that catches folks.  At least five spellings are in common use: Kadaffi, Quadafi, Gaddaffi, Kaddifi, Qaddafi.

Stopping by Gaddafi’s personal website we find another: al Gathafi.”

Luckily we happen to have an Arabic speaker on staff here at USDemocrazy (doesn’t everyone?).

He explains:

The Arabic spelling of Gaddafi’s name is القذافي;. We’ll break the spelling down as best we can. Arabic is written and read from left to right. The first two vertical lines (ال) are the Al signifying the possessive, and usually precede a name. The third letter (ق) is Q. The reason the poster noted many older spellings began with a q is because that is actually how it is spelled, don’t ask us why they use a G. The fourth letter (ذ) is pronounced th like in (that) but is sometimes transliterated to dd. The fifth letter (ا) is the long A. The sixth letter (ف) if is their F, and the final letter (ي) is their long I, usually transliterated to ii or ee. Transliteration is a tricky deal and is by no means uniform. The best way we can figure his name should be written is Qathaafii.

And there is our Arabic tutorial for the day.