Gadafi, Gadaffi, Gaddafi, Gaddaffi, Gadhafi, Gadhaffi, Ghadafi, Ghadaffi, Ghaddafi, Ghaddaffi, Ghadhafi, Ghadhaffi, Kadafi, Kadaffi, Kaddafi, Kadhafi, Khadafi, Khaddafi, Khaddaffi, Khadhafi, Khadhaffi, Qadafi, Qadaffi, Qaddafi, Qaddaffi, Qadhafi, Qadhaffi, Qadhdhafi, Qathafi, … I give up.
The last hold-out for the Elizabethan approach to spelling. One of the few reasons that he'll be missed.
The last hold-out for the Elizabethan approach to spelling. One of the few reasons that he'll be missed.
Dev Thakur said,
I wonder what it is in Arabic, and why that cannot be transliterated?
Sometimes that is not so easy, e.g. "u" and "o" can both be represented similarly, hence "Osama" vs "Usama."
But aren't kaf and gaf different letters? What is the first letter when his name is spelled in Arabic? Etc.
Andrew Simpson said,
The name contains two sounds that have multiple reflexes in Arabic dialects and are not always easily rendered by English. The first sound in Standard Arabic is a voiceless uvular stop /q/. The voiced pronunciation [G] of /q/ is a characteristic of Bedouin dialects. /g/ is probably the sound closest to how his own people say it, /q/ is the conventional way of representing the Standard Arabic uvular stop, and /k/ is the closest English sound to the uvular stop. I am not sure why the /h/ is added in so many cases. This more commonly used for fricatives. The second sound is a voiced interdental fricative. However, it is more commonly realized as [d] or [z] in spoken varieties. Here /d/ is probably closest to how it is said, /dh/ is a conventionalized way of representing the Standard Arabic sound, and /th/ is the closest way of representing the Standard Arabic sound in normal English orthography.
Dan T. said,
There's also the Jewish holiday rendered variously as Hanukkah, Chanukah, Hanukah, Chanukah, Chanuka, Chanukka, Chanukkah, Hannukah, etc.; that also seems to have resisted the general tendency of English to insist on one "correct" spelling.
Source: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2989
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